Holly, our DON at work, is always drilling in to us about how important the care we give our patients will make a lasting impression and makes their stay better! We know this, but we always want to make sure we are doing our best!
Katie, one of my co-workers shared a story of care at a large hospital that she had experienced, but I experienced it for myself in the last 24 hours!
When I first got to Creighton University Hospital last night the girls were very awesome at first to get me hooked up to the monitors and settled in. One of the residents came in and asked questions and said, I'm gonna go look at your stuff and then we will make a plan. 30 min later, a different resident came in and told me that the plan was to monitor me over night and if I "stabalized" I would go home in the morning!
Well...my straight face lasted long enough for the nurse to walk out of the room, but once the door clicked the tears came!
I was so frustrated! No one understood that yes, if my contractions stopped and I was sent home...I was 4 hours...AT LEAST from a NICU that could care for my baby if he needed it! Every nurse and resident kept saying...we are used to delivering babies at 35 and 36 weeks gestation! They weren't getting that although they were comfortable with it...we WEREN'T in O'Neill...which is where they were planning on sending me!
The nurse came back in to finish my admit and I verbally puked on her as to what I was upset about. 20 minutes later, this man in jeans and a pink t-shirt comes watlzing in my room and says...they tell me you want to speak to me...my response was...and you are? He THEN introduces him self as Dr. Basoon or something like that!
I said yes...we were under the impression that we were coming down here to have an amnio so that if Chris' lungs weren't developed we were in the right place to deliver!
His response was...you want an amnio...you can have an amnio...and in 15 min they set up, performed and were out of my room! It was 7:15 p.m.
The last thing the nurse that was supposedly taking care of me did was say something about my
"uterine irritability" that was clearly coming every 2 min and although they weren't mountains, I was feeling everyone of them! She said...oh they aren't that strong!
For those that are not in nursing or OB...the only way you can tell that is if you are feeling the woman's tummy contract or have a monitor inside the uterus that will tell you exactly how strong it is! She then said if I wanted to eat something I had better get it ordered. I was handed the menu with no instructions. I called and left a message at 7:20 p.m. and never did receive a tray.
It wasn't until midnight that the nurse came in my room! With that in mind, I had been to the bathroom twice and had repositioned myself multiple times. I guess I shouldn't say I repositioned myself...Jason was at my side to reposition me and help me to the bathroom! I also had locked my own IV at 10 p.m. because my bag of fluids was dry! I don't know if I was a bad patient or worse nurse to wait and see how long it would take for them to come in and check my IV!
The rest of the night, no one made any attempt to make me comfortable or help me reposition myself!!! Jason did EVERYTHING for me!
The next person to come in my room was at 620 this a.m. and that was the resident to tell me that since I stabalized over night and my cervix hadn't changed, I was going to go home today! I expressed my concerns that again...delivering an immature 36 weeker in O'Neill was COMPETELY different than at CUMC. She kind of blew off my concerns and stated she would talk with Dr. Basoon and let me know!
Now, supposingly my uterus stabalized over night...however, the monitor right under my breast doesn't tell what my uterus is doing...and not checking my cervix does not necessarily mean that it isn't changing it!
After all that, I called home to our OB manager and my primary physician to say...I wasn't happy and this is the plan and am I crazy for being worried! They said no...I wasn't crazy and Doc took the time to explain things further that was able to calm my nerves!
At 8 a.m. a breath of fresh air came in the room. My nurse for the day...Bari! She was the first to assess me beyond baby's heart rate, she was the first to ask how I was feeling, she was the first to tell us what the plan was at the time and she was the first person in 16 hours to offer me a drink of water!!!! The nurse also apologized for our trouble with ordering food too! She then took the time to sit down and talk with me about the plan of care and acknowedged my concerns! I could have kissed this woman!! (Okay, probably not, but I was happy!!!)
Now, after all of this, I'm not saying that as a nurse, we don't get busy with other patients and don't get to each patient the same amount of time, but I know that I check on my patient's more than 3 times a shift!
I have never so badly in the first 3 hours after an admission, wanted to sign out AMA and go somewhere different! I cried and cried and cried. I'm pretty sure that Jason has never seen a woman cry as much as I did yesterday! All I wanted was to get back home to a hospital that I know...knew would take better care of me!
I am also going to say that I know that others have been to this hospital, including family, and had great experiences...but I just couldn't believe that I was 3 hours form home and being treated like this! To them, I was the crazy pregnant crying lady!
I was happy to get out of that hospital! I practically ran!
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