Posted on 12/23/2011 2:55:59 PM PST by Nachum
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Two nurses in a Utah hospital's intensive care unit were fired this week for taping a patient's mouth shut and laughing about it, hospital officials said Friday.
Penny Artalejo was admitted to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo on Dec. 17 with nausea and anxiety from taking medication for chronic neck pain, her daughters told KSL ( http://bit.ly/tbVNuS ).
Artalejo's daughter, Brittany Bilson, told the television station that her mother's teeth were chattering and she was moaning and shaking. Bilson said the nurses told her mother to shut up, taped her mouth closed and joked they would be fired if they were caught.
"It's not right. It's inhumane," Bilson said. "We put our loved ones' lives in their hands. I left the hospital basically thinking she's fine from here, and just more bad happened."
Artalejo said the nurses knew what they were doing was wrong. Though in pain, she said she was alert the whole time.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
When my wife was hospitalized after back surgery she was repeatedly given the wrong medication. The doctor finally had to put in her chart that my mother-in-law or I had to be present to OK meds given to her.
After a C-section my wife rang the nurse call button for two hours. Her urine collecting bag hag overfilled and the floor was flooded with urine. She finally called me and I drove from our house to get the nurses off the phone and into her room to change the bag.
The quality of nursing at that hospital (the state’s best) is deplorable.
I haven’t seen a nurse in uniforn for years. They all wear scrubs now. The nurse’s, the janitors, even some patients.
Remember when you walked into a hospital and the smell of detergent and disinfectant hit you in the nose?
You don’t smell that anymore and some hospitals are dirty you can see fuzzballs in the corners.
Now placing tapeacross a patient that is nauseous sounds like attempted murder to me, I can’t think of anything that is more dangerous and could inspire a patient to aspirate vomitous into their lungs than that.Not many people survive vomitous in the lungs.
Are you sure it was Hydrocodone? That is the generic name for Vicodin. It’s a narcotic pain killer whose major manifestations are dizziness and drowsiness, not hyper-activity. Not by any means doubting your story but the effects your experienced seem exactly opposite of what the drug is supposed to do.
The diagnosis wasn’t given perhaps for privacy reasons(hipaa) but neck pain/nausea issues could be caused by suspected meningitis, angina,MI, post neck surgery,or arrhythmias with neck pain as only minor comorbidity. Influenza might be another cause of sx’s.
“Plus they had male nurses taking care of the elderly women, and we girls did not like that at all.”
HEY...I RESEMBLE THAT THAR REMARK!...(though the ICU is my abode!)
I wear all whites!
Hydrocodone/Hom. And yes, my reactions were eggs ackley the opposite of what is expected. My Sister has the same problem. Spoke to my pharmacist for quite a while. She said that my reaction was not that unusual. See the “side effects.” They call it “Excitability.” High pulse rate, raised BP, itching, etc.. Was completely manic for 5 hours. Doctors abandoned me. I’m extremely pissed at them. Woke up at 2:30 am, coughed, and snapped the ribs again. Ain’t gonna be a fun Christmas!
We have a large enough family that when one of us is in the hospital, it is a rare hour that goes by without a family member present. I remember reading somewhere that that tends to increase the odds of a successful outcome to treatment as well.
I am assuming that you are a male nurse. Please don’t be insulted, but, as a woman, I do not want a man as a nurse for some care. Usually, in the ICU you are taking vital signs and monitoring systems that would not offend my modesty, I assume, so that is a different story.
In the place I am describing— and perhaps in many other health care facilities these days, for all I know — there was a male nurse who came in to perform a rectal exam on my dear 94-year-old mother while I was there. I objected.
Your mother sounds like my mother. My parents raised 9 children, and my sisters and I often marvel at how she did it and made it look easy. Clean house, clean, well-mannered children. She got us off to school each morning with a hot breakfast, a packed lunch, and a neatly pressed school uniform — no “wash and wear” in the 1950s.
On top of it all, what a looker, who always dressed up when she went somewhere. Miss her so....
I honestly have not seen a nurse in whites in years.
So how do you feel about male doctors?
My GYN is male. He’s wonderful. I’ve been his patient for over 20 years. He delivered two of my best friend’s baby’s. And for many years he had a male nurse assistant. I had no issue with my “modesty” with the male doctor and the male assistant during my exams. They are and always acted as professionals. I know some women who will only see female GYN’s but I’d rather see the best and most competent doctor regardless of gender.
And why would a female performing an “intimate” exam or procedure not offend you? How do you know for sure she’s not a lesbian? : ),
I prefer a female doc. My 4 children were all delivered by male docs, however, and that was not a problem for me.
But if I had had a choice at the time I would have gone to a woman. It wasn’t until years later that I saw my first female GYN. What a difference! Never went to a male GYN again.
Some nurses were color coded uniforms, Mrs. LVD RN wears midnight blue, LPN’s wear light blue, and nurses aids wear a mauve color.
Those in the medical profession are well aware of different colors for their uniforms,
https://www.scrubadoo.com/store/all-products/
As ladyjane wrote: Most of the RNs, BSNs and Nurse Practitioners are dedicated and good.
(And there are bad ones that don’t last long..!)
Ran through those in my own differential diagnosis.
Something still doesn’t add up.
Granted we won’t receive the entire story due to HIPPA, but something still doesn’t add up.
Dr. BP,
Sounds almost like a cocaine high. The Johns Hopkins website does indicate these effects in rare cases. I take Dilaudid (Hydromorphone) and have never had anything but the normal effects. Maybe they could switch you to that or ones of the oxy’s. Anyway, it’s gotta suck not being able to “Ho, Ho, Ho with broken ribs.
Merry Christmas to you and yours. Get well soon.
Hydrocodone/Hom. And yes, my reactions were eggs ackley the opposite of what is expected. My Sister has the same problem. Spoke to my pharmacist for quite a while. She said that my reaction was not that unusual. See the “side effects.” They call it “Excitability.” High pulse rate, raised BP, itching, etc.. Was completely manic for 5 hours. Doctors abandoned me. I’m extremely pissed at them. Woke up at 2:30 am, coughed, and snapped the ribs again. Ain’t gonna be a fun Christmas!
Yeah and if your mom had had a rectal impaction,which is part of assessments for folks in rehab care and it was not discovered by this male nurse...it might have meant bigger issues for your mother then just immodesty. You think her MALE DOCOTORS are checking such regions every day? You know how many digital disimpactions I do in the ICU because her male or female nurses have not discovered such issues which often are the cause for the cardiac arrythmias that brought her to my ICU in the first place?(and no the doctors male or female haven’t checked “there” as well!)
Nursing isn’t just about the tenderness of mopped brows and kind words and 18th century notions,,,it’s also about the fierceness of the science and evidence based practice that allows one to blow the feeblest of life’s embers back into full flame.
Now we try to be accomodating if female nurses are available and such are desired but often there is not enough to go around just like there are not enough female doctors to go around. Also, many elderly female patients are in excess of 250 lbs or more so if you have a majority of rn’s around 140 lbs or so who are under 5’6” but you have guys who are in excess of 6’ and are very strong, just guess who is going to get 300 lb Miss Matilda in room 22? Males don’t get into the back problems or are on 12 weeks of maternity leave that many female nurses do. Males don’t call in sick very often or have the family issues the females have That’s the reality of it all!
I’ve raised 4 children and have been married 22 years, God has extended blessings to me that I don’t deserve and nursing has been a big part of it all!
Our hospital has instituted new policies that nurses wear white blouses or scrub tops and “galaxy blue” scrub pants as part of a policy to help our patients know who the nurses are...the white tops or scrub tops are manditory. We can also wear all white tops, and white pants and the women can wear white dress uniforms if they want. The company has recognized in its marketing surveys that customers want nurses to be recognized as nurses and they don’t like the “wear what you like” enviroments that the hospitals have become. Thus, our hospital system has instituted uniform standards of dress for each ancillary service. Nurses are to wear white tops and “galaxy blue” pants or all white uniforms.
I can’t stand the “metro” galaxy blue coloring so I’ve gone back to all white like in the early days in my career. I find my co-workers say that all white suits me better anyway(”it seems to change you”) and the patient responses tell me that an all white uniform is an easy “foot in the door” when it comes to assessing a new patient for the first time.
And may God continue to shower blessings upon you.
Merry Christmas!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.