Another duty week had passed. I’m just going to spill the details of that past week in a bullet form:
- No more Philhealth Accreditation Week so we had more time to sit down and we were less tired than the prior week. Hehe.
- We handled the whole ward but we were still given specific patients to handle. We had one patient each for two days and we had two patients each for the next two days. Now, we will be handling three patients each.
- We had 5 deaths in the past two weeks, one of which was my patient. The first death was unforgettable because it was only our third day but we already witnessed a body being CPR-ed! The second death was very fast, few hours prior to admission if I’m not mistaken. The third death was also shocking. 2 groupmates and I used to take her vital signs and administer her meds then next thing we knew, she had a cardiac arrest and eventually died. The fourth death belonged to that of my patient. It was very unforgettable because of the course of the event leading to her death and it was my first time to do post-mortem care. She was fine day before her death then on the morning of her death, she had difficulty of breathing due to the pooling of secretions in her throat which was very audible when she exhales. I asked her relative to buy the medicine that was prescripted to them the day before so that her secretions can loosen up and I could suction it. The relative bought it and I nebulized the patient. The doctor came and ordered to do nebulization every 15 minutes for 3 times. While I was on my second nebulization, the doctor discussed to the relatives that the patient was already 50-50 and they have to decide already if they’re going to opt for DNR. While the doctor was explaining, I saw a tear fell from my patient’s eyes! Oh my gosh. But then I just acted as if it was nothing. Then I went back to the nurse’s station and discussed what happened to my groupmates. I had only seated for only a minute or two when the staff nurse asked, ‘Kanino si bed 39?’ And I replied, ‘Ay, akin po yun Ma’am!’ And she replied back, ‘Patay na yung patient mo di mo pa alam!’ I stood up from my seat as if my butt was on fire and immediately rushed to my patient. They checked her ECG tracing and it was flat line already so the doctor declared her time of death. I helped the Nursing Aide do the post-mortem care.
- We did charting already. :)
- So far, the duty days were going on smoothly naman. :)