More experiences from week 3

Accompanied a patient to get an x-ray on his hand after he punched a wall in frustration. He broke his knuckle in two places, the radiographer said it’s unlikely to heal on it’s own and he’ll probably need surgery. The patient was totally in denial, “I’ve got really strong hands because I played hockey for years, it’ll be no problem”.

Observed a dermatology review on a patient that has weird rashes all over his body.

Did an ECG on a patient with my fellow student.

Sat in on the morning multi-disciplinary team meeting. This is like handover except it’s with all the psychiatrists, doctors, welfare officer, head nurse, activities coordinator and social worker on the unit.

Held a beauty therapy group that I was asked to run (because the activities coordinator was allergic to the products). Only one person came, so I asked her if she’d like a facial and manicure. She couldn’t stop rambling from topic to topic the whole time (part of her illness) so I had to keep saying to her in a soft voice “just try to not to talk, relax and enjoy it”. She said she really enjoyed it and that it was so relaxing, despite not being able to stop talking for more than 10 seconds.

I approached one patient who has been wearing the same shirt everyday for the last 2 weeks and some people have commented that he stinks. I suggested he wash his shirt, gave him a sachet of washing powder and offered him a hospital shirt. He was very offended and said, “I’m a grown man, I know when to change my shirt, it’s not your job to tell me”. I said I didn’t mean to offend him, it was just a suggestion and totally up to him whether he wants to wash it, and thought maybe he didn’t have any other shirts.” He said “well I just washed this shirt two days ago actually”, although it looked really dirty and gross. So I just said, “no worries, that’s fine”. Then five minutes later I saw him change into a new shirt and take the other one to the laundry, LOL.

Only one more week to go now, I have a feeling it will go by fast. I’ve done a lot of work on my assignment again this weekend, but it’s still not finished.