Friday, October 23, 2009

Unexpected!

All of us at work were really shocked to learn that one of our patients, XX, collapsed and died the morning after XX's hospital discharge.

XX has been in the hospital for nearly one month. XX was diagnosed with multiple PEs. We had organised various investigations to find a cause for her multiple PEs, as she was very young. All investigations were negative. As XX was clinically better, we discharged her, with follow up arrangements.

Who would have expected XX to die the next day?

No one.

Maybe it was purely coincidental. Maybe XX was going to collapse the next day, and it could have happened in the hospital, where we could all jump on her chest and start resuscitation. But somehow, one could not help but wonder whether we have all missed something, or under-investigated her.

RIP.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Please Give Me a Chance to Speak!

Oh dear....this job is really emotionally challenging at times.

Today, I spent 1 hour on the telephone just trying to explain to an extremely dissatisfied, and misinformed daughter of a patient about her father's care.

I mean it is alright if she does not have a clue about medicine, or she has no idea about what tests we are doing to investigate the cause of her father's initial presentation.

But what I really could not understand was how could someone not even attempt to listen to what I have to say! I mean, come on, no matter how unhappy you are about any part of the care, just please, give me a chance to explain and provide you with more information.

She was extremely unpleasant to me over the phone, which, is fine, I mean, I can tolerate that. However, whenever I tried to say something to explain the situation, she just spoke over me.

She felt that catheterising her dad, who came in with acute urinary retention: "appalling."

The fact that we were not able to perform a 24 hour Holter because her dad was uncooperative (ie, kept pulling it off his body): She thought we were not doing anything.

She did not believe me when I told her that her dad was very confused and agitated. She said it was all because of the sedative meds we gave him. Ok, yes, we sedated him alittle because he was at danger of harming himself by trying to tug at different things.....But, the fact that the reason he was acting like that was due to underlying sepsis has been absolutely pushed away by her!

I dunno. I really felt like giving up at the end of the conversation. She was not listening to what I have to say, and I felt that there was not much point in even explaining things. I just wish, sometimes, people would just listen first, before jumping into any conclusions.

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

8 weeks into the job....and?

It has been just over 2 months since I've moved onto a new job. It is really strange, i know, but somehow, I miss the lack of staffing levels in my previous hospital, miss my old work colleagues, and miss all the banter.

I have been asked the same questions a few times over the past couple of weeks.

"So how do you find your new job?"

And my reply would be, "Its alrite."

Funnily enough, the person would say, "Why? You don't enjoy working here?"

hmm... I think using the pharse "not enjoying" is incorrect. In fact, I do like it here. I mean, I have a registrar who I can turn to, the consultants are so friendly, and almost everyone I have met so far has been extremely pleasant (apart from the odd few people).

I guess, most people think that working in this hospital is like a dream! Probably because it is a very big district hospital, with almost every specialty under the sun. But working in such a big space, means you dun get to know everyone well. I used to recall knowing all my fellow SHOs, which nurse is dating who, or what scandals there are amongst us doctors, but now, there is no such bonding. In fact, there is hardly anytime for that.

Everyone is just busy with their own jobs.

That aside, the job has been pretty hectic, and just like every other hospital, we are short of doctors!