I'm currently on a ortho inpatient's placement at the moment and had a spinal patient who had a farming accident on a 4 wheeler with her child on the back. Only the mother got seriuosly injured and the child got away with cuts and bruises.
The patient's family came to visit, including the child, and saw that she had a spinal brace and halo on. This scene was too much for the child who was so distressed seeing her mother in that situation that she passed out and collasped in her room. Although not serously injuring herself, its quiet amazing to see how emotional some kids get in the hospital, especially for this child who was in the accident but got away relatively injury free.
If this situation were to ever present itself again, a distressed child seeing their parent in a hospital bed, I would sit down and talk to the kid in laymens terms, explaining what has happened to their parent and answering any questions that they have.
Has anybody come across a similar situation throughout there pracs this year?
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3 comments:
It would be hard for us to speak to kid and get them to understand the situation but I think that would be the best option. A patient I had has a moderate risk of not surviving the surgery and told me they had a hard time explaining this to their grandson. Maybe the psychs could put a program in place that preps the families prior to hospital?
i havent come across a similar situation, but i think this applies to anyone who walks into a sees a friend/family member in braces/halos for the first time. i think it should have been explained to the child before she came into visit her mother what to expect by her family or asked for someone to be present when they bought the child to visit to explain what everything is. in my experience on the spinal ward, the nurses were fantastic with family members taking time to reassure them. i think the previous comment about having a psych available for famiies is a good idea.
One thing I have really noticed whilst on prac, particularly in the hospitals is that noone seems to tell the family or the patient what is going on. Even communication between the allied health team is slow and patients/ family are the last priority. Often patients ask questions that you feel is not your place at all to be answering and it makes you wonder why noone has told them. I found this was particularly bad on the wards of the larger hospitals where a patients condition could fluctuate quickly. In a situation where wives and parents are not adequately informed of their loved ones status, you can only imagine the effect this would have on the children who are also waiting to find out. I agree, perhaps a program should be started to help prep families for what is happeing/ what they are seeing in the hospital setting.
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