Sunday, July 23, 2006
The Epidural Machine
My first few days in hospital involved far less pain that I anticipated, which was wonderful (see Pain Control for Wimps posting 16 July).
Whenever I felt any pain my specialist, or was it anaesthetist, had instructed the nursing staff to check the level of drugs flowing through the epidural machine. This was then increased or decreased as required. If the bag was getting low and they hadn't noticed, I would call the nurse and it would soon be sorted....during the day.
At night sometimes it was a bit different. A couple of the nurses seemed to have real problems with checking and changing the bag, or whatever it is they do, on the epidural machine.
One night I went through a stage of feeling a considerable amount of discomfort, which seemed to suggest that the drugs weren't flowing through the epidural machine properly. I called the night nurse. She was a lovely friendly person, but for some reason hadn't seemed terribly confident with the epidural machine. She fiddled around with it in the same way that I would with a video recorder or a piece of technical equipment that I couldn't get to work properly. In other words, it seemed as if she didn't have a clue!
After much fiddling and tutting, she called another nurse to help. She wasn't much better, but between the two of them, they eventually got things working and I became more comfortable and went off to sleep again.
The following night I had a similar episode. I think it was as a result of the bag being almost empty. I asked the nurse what the problem was with the epidural machine. She rolled her eyes and said, "The staff don't like it. It doesn't make our life any easier, and it doesn't do much for the patients either."
Nothing could have been further from the truth. What we had here was a machine that worked superbly and kept me comfortable, in spite of the major surgery that I'd been through. To me it was like a miracle as long as it was working properly. And the only thing that stopped it from working properly was the occasional nurse who didn't seem confident or competent to handle it.
The following day, I had a visit from my anaesthetist and mentioned to him that the nurses didn't seem to have any problem with the equipment during the day but they did at night. He said to me that this wasn't unusual at my hospital because the night nurses didn't deal with some of the equipment quite as much they tended to be less confident with it.
I hope he realised that this lack of confidence also affects the confidence of patients like me, which in turn affects the level of pain we feel. Pain is a psychological thing as well as physical. Feeling anxious raises the level of pain.
It's really important in any customer situation that service providers are encouraged to build up their confidence as well as their competence. Then they can pass this confidence and feeling of well-being onto the customer, in this case their patients.
It's also important that they realise that their negative comments and expressions can cause a loss of confidence in them as service providers and as ambassadors of their organisation.
Whenever I felt any pain my specialist, or was it anaesthetist, had instructed the nursing staff to check the level of drugs flowing through the epidural machine. This was then increased or decreased as required. If the bag was getting low and they hadn't noticed, I would call the nurse and it would soon be sorted....during the day.
At night sometimes it was a bit different. A couple of the nurses seemed to have real problems with checking and changing the bag, or whatever it is they do, on the epidural machine.
One night I went through a stage of feeling a considerable amount of discomfort, which seemed to suggest that the drugs weren't flowing through the epidural machine properly. I called the night nurse. She was a lovely friendly person, but for some reason hadn't seemed terribly confident with the epidural machine. She fiddled around with it in the same way that I would with a video recorder or a piece of technical equipment that I couldn't get to work properly. In other words, it seemed as if she didn't have a clue!
After much fiddling and tutting, she called another nurse to help. She wasn't much better, but between the two of them, they eventually got things working and I became more comfortable and went off to sleep again.
The following night I had a similar episode. I think it was as a result of the bag being almost empty. I asked the nurse what the problem was with the epidural machine. She rolled her eyes and said, "The staff don't like it. It doesn't make our life any easier, and it doesn't do much for the patients either."
Nothing could have been further from the truth. What we had here was a machine that worked superbly and kept me comfortable, in spite of the major surgery that I'd been through. To me it was like a miracle as long as it was working properly. And the only thing that stopped it from working properly was the occasional nurse who didn't seem confident or competent to handle it.
The following day, I had a visit from my anaesthetist and mentioned to him that the nurses didn't seem to have any problem with the equipment during the day but they did at night. He said to me that this wasn't unusual at my hospital because the night nurses didn't deal with some of the equipment quite as much they tended to be less confident with it.
I hope he realised that this lack of confidence also affects the confidence of patients like me, which in turn affects the level of pain we feel. Pain is a psychological thing as well as physical. Feeling anxious raises the level of pain.
It's really important in any customer situation that service providers are encouraged to build up their confidence as well as their competence. Then they can pass this confidence and feeling of well-being onto the customer, in this case their patients.
It's also important that they realise that their negative comments and expressions can cause a loss of confidence in them as service providers and as ambassadors of their organisation.
# posted by Jurek Leon @ 4:38 pm 
