Today at 4.30pm an orderly came up to myself and another Physio to let us know that a man in room ? needed to go to the toilet and can we walk him to the toilet. I had only seen this man once before and the Physio i was with was brand new on the ward that afternoon so didn't know how the ward operated let alone who this patient was and his mobility. We called the nurse but aparantly he had had his call bell on for about 30 mins and was now busting.
I knew he could shuffle with a wheeled zimmer frame with 2 x assist so the new physio tracked down the older physio (the normal one on the ward who is also my supercisor) and together, my supervisor and i walked with him a few metres to the toilet. We both noticed his profuse sweating on the way to the bathroom.
Once we got there he had difficulty turning around, eventually he was lined up okay and could take a seat on the commode. Both my supervisor and i noticed the man's colour and increased sweating and i ran to get a sats machine. I took all of 30 secs but by the time i returned my supervisor told me i should press the met button.
I couldn't see the met button so pressed the yellow one (the semi serious one but not the met one...) until i finally located the met button but he had reagined consciousness so it wasn't necessary bu this stage. I went and tracked down his nurse and the head nurse while my supervisor stayed with him in the bathroom.
I've never really had anything serious happen to me at a clinic so this would have to be the most serious thing i've come accross. I was a bit panicky when i couldn't locate the met button and also a little angry at myself cos i should know where it is (but it was located near the door entrance near the light switch which i found a bit odd instead of behind the bed-oh well).
It just makes me think that i should never take any situation too lightly and while this seemed like a bit of a hassle, almos,t to start with, just to walk him to the toilet it turned into a situation very quickly. Im glad i had someone else there at the time cos i don't think i could have handled the situation myself.
In the future i'm going to try and act faster on my observations (when i noticed him sweating a lot i probably should have sat him down straight away) and i will look at where that blue met button is in future!
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Yeah good post Erin, in that situation i would probably be in the same boat. I had a lady the other day with a met call, and luckily i wasnt in the room or treating her at the time. After the event though i made sure i knew where it was for next time. It's fortunate with your pt that he came good and now you know where it is. Its not something that you like to think about or use often, but when needed its pretty important. I think alot of allied health workers/students would be unsure which is which.
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