Hey guys, last week of placement, hope everything is going well!
Something I never really considered when we did our communication units (remember those?) was the fact that we also have to interact with patients families. While I’m sure at some point it was mentioned, the focus was upon the patient and common situations you may face e.g. the emotional patient, indigenous patient, non-English speaking patient.
Recently on my cardiopulmonary placement I have had several patients who always have visitors, mainly their partners or children. As this is my first real ward based placement I have been surprised with the amount of interaction I have had with the patients’ family. Naturally the family is concerned for their husband/father etc and as a result have many questions to ask of me.
Last week I was approached by a patients' wife in the hallway. Her husband is currently recovering from an emergency procedure for a perforated duodenal ulcer, following which he developed some complications and spent some time in ICU. He is now quite de-conditioned and I have been working with him to build up his strength. While in physio terms he is making good improvement, in medical terms his recovery is slow. His wife was very teary talking to me, which I found difficult as I had never been exposed to this before. I did my best to comfort her, pointing out how far he had come since his stay in ICU; however I tried to avoid giving false hope or saying something like “he’ll get better”. In my opinion it is wrong to use such statements as they may in fact be wrong, but you can still provide encouragement and point out the positives.
In the future I’m sure I’ll feel uncomfortable in the same situation, however like anything, the more you are exposed to something the easier it becomes. This placement has made me realise that not only is it important to develop communication skills with patients and allied health staff, but families also.
Enjoy your time off, or good luck with your next placement.
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That sounds like a tough situation because you don't want to give the patients family false hope but then you don't want to dash their hopes either. So i think you handled the situation well by explaining how her husband had made improvements and getting her to focus on those positives. I think by also making the family identify these positives could also lessen the stress on the patient as they see that they are not causing their family undue burden and sadness
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