Hey guys, I trust everyone is enjoying their time back on pracs and I know ill be glad not to be blogging to myself!!
Im currently on a cardiotx surgery ward at charlies and I have been allocated a pt who had a stroke post-op, mainly because I just came of neuro. Anyway, because the pt originally came in for heart surgery and is on a cardio ward, his chest/lungs are the doctors/physio's/nurses main concern, but this does not in anyway help on his road to recovery from the stroke. If he was on a neuro ward he would be being seen twice daily for up to an hour each but on this ward, because he is for "rehab" and is no longer an acute chest, I can only offer him 30mins max. of my time. My supervisor stated b/c he was rehab, only 3 times a week. I feel so sorry for this pt, as it seems that he is just being sweeped under the rug. I understand that hospitals are at capacity and so so understaffed but it appears this is to the detrement of everyone. Unfortunately, rehab will not accept him until he is medically stable, meanwhile he deteriorates every day. It is just so sad to know how much I could do for the recovery of this pt yet due to time contraints and what appears the finer points of hospital legistics, my treatments are very incidental. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced the frustration of this situation, and whether us as a new generation of physio's are concerned about our hospital system and what we are going to do about it!!
Thanks for reading. Suanne
2 comments:
Awwww toughie Suanne. Yes I have had similar confusing episodes with a paeds patient who had a stroke... if I am interpreting this correctly, how would you feel about asking your supervisor for additional time as surely neuro is kind of rehab. Alternatively can you speak to one of the neuro physios at Charlies and see if they are able to take the patient for the neuro part of their treatment? In the meantime I guess being as time efficient as possible to cram in as much as you can in the half an hour...but persist I think it's great to see you advocating for the patient :) The joys of the public health system. Keep at it! xx
hey Suanne, There are tonnes of patients like that in my ward hey.... I know exactly how you feel where sometimes you get the urge to just ignore the day's schedule and go into their rooms and give them a full stretching sessions....its even more frustrating when see them being sent home with clear chests but extremely poor ambulation and mobility. However I guess in the end the reason why we are so limited with these patients is mainly because there are other patients in the ward who need us more to keep them away from bugs and infections by keeping a clear strong chests!
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