“Good morning sir” she politely greeted me. “I’ll just take your blood pressure”
Then she did then she relay the results then.
And after a while she went into the boss and obtains her blood pressure too.
“70/50 ma’am” she relayed
“What? That is too low! I used to have 130/90 or 140/100” she insist
“Maybe you are taking some medications that might affect your blood pressure ma’am” she defend
I felt pity to people who’s being scolded in front of me so I stepped away. Then after a few minutes the boss called me.
“You are also a nurse right?” she asked me
“Yes ma’am” I answered
“Can you do the taking of my blood pressure?”
I looked at our company nurse if it wouldn’t offend her. She ask me to persist but before that, I tried to elaborate explanations without them even knowing that I am wasting at least 5 minutes before I go on taking the blood pressure. We’re taught that we must wait for at least several minutes to do the verification reading. Then after 5 minutes I took the blood pressure on the opposite hand where it has been taken.
“80/50” I relayed
The boss sighed “Well, at least I can breathe now” she said
I just tap the company nurse on her back to tell her don’t mind it and don’t be offended.
She just nods at me.
One day the employees were playing basketball during their free time. Almost everybody was there to watch and support. The game is hilarious and entertaining until one of them suffer sprain.
The company nurse quickly responds and assesses the situation. She decided to let no other move it and she gets a device to stop it from moving then the first aid medication kit followed.
She applied cold compress then.
But then, the boss yells
“What the hell are you doing? You should put anything hot on it!”
“But ma’am, I am applying what I just practiced in my field” but instead of listening to her the boss did what she wanted.
“You shouldn’t be doing that!” I stole the scene; I just can’t help it “You should be applying Cold compress in that case. Cold compress were applied intermittently for the first 3 days at least 30 minutes for every application to lessen the swelling”
They all stopped. I told her to continue what she’s doing.
She puts bandages on the right way and transferred the employee to the clinic and instructed him to elevate it most of the time.
‘Yes for venous return that will soon lessen the swelling’ my own rationale
One of the employees called the nurse again the other day.
“I’m having a trouble here” the boss started “I had a mistake on taking my medicine; I took nifedipine twice”
Nifedipine is a Calcium Channel blocker an antihypertensive drug which acts to decrease contraction of heart thus lowers the heart rate and blood pressure.
“I’ll just get my BP apparatus, I have to know what your blood pressure is” The nurse said
“I used to take nitroglycerine twice but it doesn’t harm me” the boss said
But the nurse still gets her BP apparatus and obtains the blood pressure of the employee
“110/70” she relays
“See? That doesn’t harm you” the boss said
The nurse just smiled and said
“I’ll be back after an hour to recheck your blood pressure” and leaved
But at the back of mind how come a vasodilator doesn’t have any harmful effect if you take it twice? It acts to lower the blood pressure right? So it only means the double the dose will be the double the action to lower the blood pressure and the lower the blood pressure can lead to Shock. Right?
The HR department called my attention one day for a private conversation. The first tell me all the situation above with their intentions
“Do you want to be the company nurse?” She asked me, I didn’t answer back. I don’t know what to say then “It seems like people here saw our current nurse to be very incompetent and they told me that they’ll be contented if you’ll be the nurse then”
To tell you honestly, of course I wanted to be the company nurse because I will be back in my own field again, it is somewhat so associated to my passion and who am I to say no? but…
“I beg to disagree ma’am and I won’t accept the offer” I said, she almost fell on her seat “Our current nurse is very competent. She won’t be licensed if she’s not in the first place” I continued “I actually admire her for her interventions and if I am in the same situation I really don’t know what to do first, as it’ll be my first case but she did a good job handling sprain cases, monitoring blood pressure and knowing what to do in case her client doubled the dose of their medicines”
“But that was totally the opposite of the employee’s complain” she insist
I think the difference is on the employee’s part” my opinion “they never gave her their trust to handle their health care so how could they see her effectiveness then?”
“When our boss told me to take her blood pressure I allotted 5 minsutes to do it so I could get the most accurate results; the BP obtained by our nurse is correct: a 10mmhg difference is very much acceptable upon obtaining BP on the opposite arms”
“The cold compress she applied is also correct. We are taught how to handle such cases and I know that she knew what she’s doing”
“The Blood pressure monitoring on our employee is also correct. The medicine used to lower the blood pressure and with taking it twice would double the effect of lowering BP that may lead to shock and more fatal case”
I elaborate it.
“I am not defending her because I am with the same profession. I am defending her because I knew that what she just did are appropriate and I appreciate it all; the thing our other employees lacking off to give”
“What is the sense of having a nurse here if they’ll believe more on the people who just said it’s right? We are not licensed for nothing ma’am, we are licensed because we can justify our every interventions”
After the talk I felt like I did something for the nursing community. I felt like I defended millions of nurses. Telling the whole world that ‘WE ARE NOT JUST NURSES!
But WE ARE NURSES! instead’
The company nurse thanked me.( ican't post the image of the message as it cannot be taken clearly) and the message was : Sir Thank you talaga! ikaw lang naka appreciate sakin and mabuhay ka sir! Pinagtanggol mo rin ang kapwa natin Nurse!
And the HR officer talked to the other employees the day after.
No comments:
Post a Comment