Bedside

By Anne Harris

Have you ever wondered what goes on in a nearby hospital? Who cares for the patients? What is good care and what is not? If you are not a healthcare professional, or have one in your family you may have some basic idea, but what are the problems I should be aware of? Maybe youre asking, Where does all the money go for operating such a facility? Even basic questions like what kind of food is served there, and why? How can I change something I did not like about that hospital? Who are these people caring for my loved one? There are so many questions for so many people to be answered. This book will give the reader guidance on all of these questions and much more. Going home from the hospital? Now what? Written for the lay person, patient, and family member who wants and need to know what is needed at the bedside.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9781496953308

Anne Harris

Anne Harris won the 1999 Spectrum Award for her novel, Accidental Creatures. Her previous novel, The Nature of Smoke, was praised as "an impressive debut" by Publishers Weekly. She lives in Royal Oak, Michigan.

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© 2014 Anne Harris. All rights reserved.

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Published by AuthorHouse 10/10/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4969-5308-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-5330-8 (e)

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Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter One    In The Begining

Chapter Two    Where Has The Care Gone?

Chapter Three    Who Are The Staff, And What Do They Do?

Chapter Four    Where Does All That Money Go, Anyway?

Chapter Five    A Day In The Life Of A Patient, Without Proper Staffing

Chapter Six    How Do I Know As A Patient, That The Care We Get Is What We Need?

Chapter Seven    When A Family Member Is Hospitalized, What Is The Best Way To Check On Their Care?

Chapter Eight    The Visitors From Hell

Chapter Nine    There Are Angels Who Visit

Chapter Ten    Security Precautions For All Who Are In Patients And Their Families

Chapter Eleven    Hospital Food, A Long Standing Joke Why Is This Stuff So Bad Or Not

Chapter Twelve    It’s Time To Go Home Get It Done Right And Safely Or You’ll Be Back Soon

Chapter Thirteen    But, He Really Can’t Go Home, Just Yet. Or, We Don’t Think Going Home For Her Is A Safe Option

Chapter Fourteen    I’m Sorry There Isn’t Much We Can Do Anymore, Except Make Her Comfortable

Chapter Fifteen    How Did This Person Get A Job In A Hospital Or What Is Going On With Some Of The Staff? Watching For The Signs Of Staff Dysfunction

Chapter Sixteen    What Can We Do To Fix Some Of The Bedside Problems. Or How To Make Things Easy, Simple And Successful At The Bedside Of The Patient

Author’s Note

FOREWORD

THIS BOOK IS dedicated to all my great patients I had the honor to care for over the past many years. And without whom, this book, and the knowledge I’m putting into it, would not be possible.

Also, my beautiful daughter Tania, who makes life and its joys and trials, all worth living to the fullest.

INTRODUCTION

OVER THE PAST forty years, give or take time off for life’s events, I worked at may a patient’s bedside. I have seen so many changes in the nursing field and in the priorities for their care. Some of the changes are great, some are not so great. As I will detail later.

This book is for anyone, who was or will be a patient in todays hospital, a nursing facility or need care at home, and for those whos loved one is in that situation. Just about everyone needs the basic nursing information that this book provides.

Most people have little, or only basic information about what goes on in the complicated world of the modern medical center, or hometown hospital. What makes for good care? What do the staff do, and why do they do it? Who are they, and am I, or my family member getting the best possible nursing care? How do hospitals run, and what should I know about what they do? They care for the sick, the dying and those who need care to get well and continue on with life. This information will be important for you, and your loved ones. It is likely that someday, for some reason, you will use this insight into the world of being a patient, and what you will need to know, when you are one.

Knowledge will be provided in this book. Bedside……………………….

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CHAPTER ONE

IN THE BEGINING

AT THE WISE age or 19, I was in junior college, and decided that I wanted a job, one that would help other people. I found a flyer for nursing a assistant class. I thought I’d give it a try and see if that is what I wanted to do. I did find out, yes this work was for me. For over forty years, I have been at the bedside of thousands of patients, and learned so much from what they wanted, and needed, that I had to pass it on. I’ve recently retired from hospital nursing and look back with fond memories, and lots of knowledge that these good people gave me. I did not spend my time in an office, or at an administration desk, but at the bedside. I want the reader to partake in the knowledge, not for any other reason than to use for their benefit.

I showed up for my first day at class, on a September morning, in 1970. The class was not large, and was about to get smaller, over the next four months. Our instructor was a World War II veteran, and had retired from nursing, so she could teach full time. There was no nonsense to be practiced in this class. This was in the middle of the hippie era, not know for neat and clean. Believe me, cleanleness was above all other orders. We learned to scrub our hands, and arms untill they were nearly raw. It was drilled into our young heads, clean, clean, and when that’s done, clean. We made beds, gave each other modified bedbaths, and cleaned trash cans. Bedpan protocal was taught untill we got it right. Blood pressure checks, and pulse checks, and the number of mercury thermometers we broke, would send the Enviromental Protection Agency into a rage. Every thing I learned in that four month class, was used every day I applied my craft. Then, the big day came. We were taken to a small local hospital, and under her tight supervision, began to care for real live patients. There was no short cuts allowed there. Our instructor seemed to be everywhere. No mistakes were tolerated. It was great, intiminating, and nerve racking, and rewarding.

Before, you could say Wash you hands, that three months, eight hours a day, five days a week were over. I was called into the director of nursing’s office, and offered a job. Second shift, 3pm to 11pm. Oh, I was so excited, and I was going to make $3.33 an hour. So, the journey began, at the bedside……………………….

In 1970, there were no trauma units, and very few speciality hospitals. Auto accidents, drug overdose, expecting moms, and heart attacks, were all brought to the same, small emergency room. That’s where I started, right out of school. There was always a shortage of staff, on the PM shift, for the hospital at large. When there was a shortage of staff for the Emergency Room, the new kid went first, and that was me.

I saw it all. Drug overdoses, remember in the early 1970’s LSD, and the experimental drugs were popular. Car accidents, that today would be called level one trauma cases. People struggling to breath after or during a cardiac arrest. The learning process evolved each day, when the RN’s I worked for would teach me, quick on the move, and then I would have to use that training, and fast. Those RN’S were my heros. Many of them were hard drinking, smoking, and tough as nails, but with hearts of gold, women who really cared about people, and wanted prefection from their assistants. I am grateful for all they taught me.

Of all the things I learned duing my time in the emergency room, the most important thing I learned, was that help for the patient could not wait. That in any emergency situation things change very quickly. The skills we learned in class, were so important. Simple things like getting a bedpan for a patient before they tried to get off the gurney and get to the bathroom. This simple move could cause further injury to the patient if they tried to do that. A blood pressure must be taken correctly, and reported immediately if there was a irregular reading. That a patient in pain often would just close their eyes and say nothing. That often family members do not follow rules, and can cause problems for the staff and the patient. At times things would be a bloody mess. In those days, gloves were only for the doctors, and no one but them were allowed to use them. That all changed a few years later, with the number of nursing staff contracting Hepititis, and then in the eighties, the advent of HIV. None of this was never in our thoughts as we raced from patient to patient, in real time. Things today haven’t changed, most emergency room workers are on top on the situation, minute to minute. In the modern trauma centers things can be at very fast pace. Many of the duties of personel in the emergency room are done on a modified auto-pilot. Gloves and hand gel are always in use. That’s all as it should be, but there are other problems that can arise. It seems almost every day we hear the news media