Sunday, May 10, 2009

On this Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day. My mum was warded since Friday afternoon for very high fever and joint pains. Chikugunya has been rampant lately and she is convinced she is having it.


The first night, I went to visit her at 8 pm. Her fever was recorded at 39.5 degrees Celcius. There was a small basin of water with pieces of washcloth thrown in on her bedside drawer. She was sleeping [on her side] when I arrived and I didn't want to wake her up.


There was an electric wire plugged in to an outlet above her head and it ran down her back to a nebulizer used by a patient on the next bed. I was concerned that should my mum turn on her back she might be lying right over a live wire so I went looking for the staff nurse on duty.

There were 4 of them, sitting in a circle and looked to me like they were chatting. Also there was a bunch [approximately 10 ... I didn't count] of student nurses from Kolej Shahputra posing for pictures.

One of the staff nurse told one of the student nurse to unplug the nebuliser because it was no longer in use then. But the student nurse acted like it was the very first second she step foot in the ward. The beds, the patients, the plugs and the equipments seemed so out of her schema. The staff nurse reluctantly left her chat circle and came over to point things out to the student nurse.

That done, she woke my sleeping mum by patting her bum and shouting rather roughly. My mum opened her eyes and looked confused. The staff nurse asked if she had urinated and collected the sample. I saw the unused sample bottle on her side drawer. My mum had a hard time comprehending and responding while the nurse kept patting her and asking in her loud manner.

I went near and asked my mum if she want to go to toilet. My mum said she has been holding her bladder since afternoon because she found it difficult to get out of bed. She was having high fever and her joints pained every time she moved. The loud mouthed nurse turned to me and instructed me to get my mum the disposable adult diaper.

I asked her why would my mum need disposable diaper?

She said pity my mum having to hold her bladder since afternoon.

I went ???

I asked her, couldn't a bed pan be used? Afterall, they needed to collect her urine sample. Furthermore isn't that part of what a nurse is paid to do ... patient care? Anyway, there were bunches of student nurses around who actually need to learn about bed pan and stuff.

No doubt I would do all I can to make my mum comfortable but I think the nurse has a totally wrong attitude. She expects me to care for my mum in the ward. I have no problem with that.

...


1 comment:

the scrabbler said...

Opps!... some attitude never change! I thought it's light years ago nurses behave like that :(
Hope your mum get well soon.