Communication

I have been treating one sweet lady who suffered right hemiparesis from stroke. This lady had severe CVA which affects her very much physically and cognitively. She has been more than one month being in a hospital and her conscious level fluctuates up and down day by day. However, her alertness was getting a little longer, but not much, toward the end of 4th week of my placement there.

She has severe dysphasia, so communication was very limited with her throughout all treatments. She was able to express one or two wards when she was alert, but repetitively. However, the pain location was always right and very specific parts of her body.

One day of my final week, she was lying in bed and appeared having pain when I went to her room for PT Rx. When she was asked where the pain was and she stated ‘whole body’. As I mentioned earlier that she always gave me the specific pain location and never been 'whole body', so it was kind of odd to me and seemed having difficulty in breathing. I went out of her room and looked for her nurse but he was in tea break. I was asked by other nurses what I needed and I explained to them the situation. One of the nurses laughed at me and said the patient could not say that, and thought I was making up. First of all, I’ve never made up the story regarding patient’s condition. Second of all, the patient is capable to communicate regarding her pain and more than the nurse thinks.

Fortunately, the registrar heard the situation what I was explaining to those nurses at the corridor in front of a patient’s room where the registrar was in. He went to her room and apparently she was found having a chest pain and required ECG twice on the day.

I have learnt how important the communication with medical team members is from this episode which could be easily missed out. Even tiny changes might be a life threatening on patient so it is always good to inform nurses or/and the doctor the unusual condition if in doubt, before it is too late.