When there is a nursing shortage be strong

Care log
Hospital
Entered room from Surgery 2/8/2010
Call time first response medication applied
7:55A request button pain 8:35 A
3:30 A 4A will get her 04:25:00 AM
10A 10:45:00 AM
Initially Morphine was to be given every two hours
Morphine intervals 5:30P
8:45P
11:45P

Summary


Suppositories, did not start until 7AM, next one at 11: 30, call was 11P

Released 2-9-2010


After the first delay between activating my call light and response I kept the log and noted the times. My efforts to manage pain through timely medication intervals were thwarted due to the inability of myself to walk and the failure of staff to respond to the call signal. Next door I heard a man begging a couple of times and suffering because he kept losing track of his button. My bed did not work making use of the large wired thing mandatory. I presume he was in the same spot, and the big thing seemed to always get buried or slide over and hang off the side of the bed.
The care itself was compassionate and very professional, but I was confused as to why I could not get a response to my call light. But this is just part of the surgical process, and even more of a reason to want to make sure it was the completely right thing to do. The next step was referral. The lesson from this part of the process is trust no one when it comes to getting information to transfer. My Ologist had to have another department do the CT on disc, and I had to sign a release to get it. New privacy laws and the unintended consequence of additional cost and load on the patient to make sure referral resources are given the information they need to make a valid treatment judgment. Lesson learned. And yet, just as only a few weeks ago I was willing to have something shoved up my ass and even tried to be charming about it to get it, the new experiences prove that one can stay young, and always have new things to take on, so to speak.