A Note to My Patient's Family Members and Loved Ones

[1truekhaleesi]

Working in neurosurgery I can't quite put in words. It is quite stressful and we move fast. Sometimes I feel like my pulse goes as high as one of my trauma patients. I rely heavily on my coworkers. The night shift crew here is like family. I can promise you that you wouldn’t want to be a patient on my unit. If you are, you most likely had a major brain or back surgery and therefore, you are considered a critical care patient. And, the first 24 hours after a surgery are the most critical.

I understand this is an especially difficult time for family members and loved ones and that guilt is eating you like a cancer. But please, please think what your loved ones would want. I can guarantee that not a whole lot of people would like to be a vegetable or reach a point where they are more machine than human. Parody or not, this song is very moving and accurately chronicles what we see everyday in healthcare.

I average 13 to 15 patients a night. So clearly I prioritize. I am sorry if I am ten minutes late getting an ice cream for your loved one because I am probably busy like I may have another patient who is slowly dying. This is a hospital, not a hotel. As weird as it may seem, there's people here that are dying. Of course I can't tell patients that because of HIPAA, so I ask you to have some patience.

There have been few times that I had a patient or patients family member that seem to think I work harder than nurses. My nurses average 5 to 6 patients a night and I average 13 to 15. My nurses do way more with every patient and they chart way more. No one person on my unit has an easy job as basically all our patients are critical care patients. My nurses are amazing, helpful, and saved my ass more times than I can count. I know at some places there is a rivalry and a secret hatred for each other between the CNAs and the nurses. But I don’t hate my nurses or any of my coworkers for that matter. My nurses teach me something new every day. As long as I have been a CNA, I have never felt disrespected by a nurse. However I have been disrespected by a fellow CNA.

I hate when patients write down like every little thing that my coworkers and I do and everything that happens. I know it is their right to do that as long as they aren’t filming or recording without our consent, but I feel like they are just waiting for me to mess up. If they are at all concerned for their loved ones care, they can just raise their concerns to my coworkers and myself.

No matter how shitty my shift is going, I always tell patients and their family members that it is just fine. I have patients fighting for their lives. The last thing they need to worry about is how my shift is going. I could just go vent to my coworkers if I needed to.

Families sometimes see us as not caring because we don’t talk to them as much as they would like. What they don’t understand is that we are busy on this floor. Sometimes we are dueling with the angel of death as we try to save a patients life. So if we seem rude, please try and understand that while we know you are worried about your loved one, they are on our minds and we are concerned for them. I have cried over a patient, more than once.

And I am sorry if we seem uncaring because we are having a laugh by the nurses station. A few family members may have thought, “how could you be laughing when my loved one has a tube shoved down his throat?” At my unit we have a saying, “if you aren't laughing, you’re crying.”

I think my personality in general and as a healthcare provider is very similar to Dr. Mahoney from Scrubs. We even got into medicine for similar reasons. I didn't go into medicine because I like helping people. As good as it feels when a patient says I am doing a good job, that isn't my reason for going into medicine. I do not like being vulnerable. I got into medicine because human anatomy is fascinating to me and I love the nuts and bolts of it all. Which is also why I am going into surgical. For those unaware, here is a little intro to Dr. Mahoneys personality. So, I’m sorry if I come off as very blunt but so far, only one patient has complained about my bluntness. My manager wants me to connect with patients and I am trying. But I feel they can see right through it. I am just waiting for a patient to say, “you are overdoing it on the niceness. I know you are quite blunt.” And then I have to remind myself that I am imagining thjngs and they don’t know me outside of work.

This unit is stressful and a lot of work. I chose to stay on this unit because I knew that anything worth having, wasn't going to be easy. I know you are terrified for your loved one. I promise that we won't let him/her slip away. We hope. Sorry working in healthcare gave me a dark sense of humor. What I can promise, is we will do our very best work for your loved one. If you make them full code, we will do everything in our power to save them. But if your loved one gets past a certain point and you dont want them to be a vegetable, we will make them comfortable so they can die with dignity.

[MsMusic]

It's tough. My dad has had 3 hip replacements, 2 shoulder replacements on the same shoulder (car accident two weeks after the first), he's had part of his lumbar spine fused, metal cage put into spine, he just had part of his c-spine replaced in October. Not to mention the smaller ones, gall bladder, tonsils, gall bladder stone removals.

My mom had a similar but more extensive c-spine surgery than he did, but not any other major ones like him.

My first time waiting through a surgery was terrifying. Every time there's a new surgery, it's terrifying. I'm scared for their lives. But you know what? I've been there so damn much I learned where the ice cream is. I've gone and got ice cream pretty much for every surgery. It seems t o brighten everyone's moods, they think it's funny when I say I'm going to get ice cream, in reality that's my time away. My 10 minutes to cry. They don't realize that why I leave. But when I come back, I have a nice cold snack, and I can laugh, smile, while we wait for him to get out of surgery.

If you're not laughing, you're crying. I always make people laugh when we're at the hospital, even through tears. Usually it's morbid jokes about the morgue, for which I feel bad but can't help, though I'm afraid I'll have a loved one end up there.

[Listening5]

I like reading your mytakes and your perspective doing this, remember the place where u worked before, yea u said u moved on to something better. So even tho u went into it cause u have that interest in how the body works, remember its not a car or a robot. Its people and you are helping people. What Im trying to say is that what u do is worth more than money.

[HamAndCheese]

You're expecting common sense from people who are in a very uncertain situation. They're scared and shaken, not retarded.