Question from a nurse

When I was at the hospital stay for a few night, a few night-shift nurses gave me their phone number so I can text them when I have a question or needed something. It is more fun and nice that way, :giggle:.

They are very blessed to have a very good nurse like you! :hug:
 
Thank you everyone!

First, thank you to all your feedback. I had a great shift and have gotten some sleep. My shift went very well with my patient and I turned him over to a great nurse that I am sure made him feel comfortable.

I think I had worked out a pretty good system during the night. My biggest concern was that when he pushed the call bell there was no way for him to know someone was on the way. I had the person answering the bell to put a note on the computer screen that alerts when a button is pushed that the patient was deaf and she just called me right away. I was able to be in the room in about 30 sec which I think was pretty good. I was able to pick up a few one or two word 'sayings' (thank you, your welcome, pain, medicine, pain medicine, ok, and a..hole....hey gotta learn at least one swear word right?). The charge nurse for today knew how to sign all the letters and some phrases from a college class so she was going to stop in and try and converse a little, at least until the day interpreter came in.

I think I am going to talk to my manager about having a continuing education class put together about dealing with deaf patients. I really was sad and frustrated reading other peoples stories on here. That shouldn't happen, ever.

Now feedback from my perspective. Usually the language barrier I encounter is with spanish speaking patients or families. I usually hear on a regular basis "you need to learn spanish because there are so many spanish speaking people here" from those patients and families as I strugle through my limited vocabulary of spanish. Contrast that to last night where I had someone who was VERY appreciative of my feeble attempts to sign, had fun with me and seemed to want to teach me some sayings (and he was the sick guy!). Wow, what a cool feeling! THiS is why I am in nursing!

I think I am going to look at taking a class, at the very least try and pick up a word or two a shift on my downtime.

Thanks again everyone. I am sure I will be staying around here and asking questions, etc.

Matt
 
daystarnite said:
When I was at the hospital stay for a few night, a few night-shift nurses gave me their phone number so I can text them when I have a question or needed something. It is more fun and nice that way, :giggle:.

They are very blessed to have a very good nurse like you! :hug:
Click to expand...

Hey, now thats an idea I didn't think of! There HAS to be some type of keyboard communication device to use in a hospital. I think I will poke around and look. We have this special two handset phone for patients that come in speaking a language we don't have access to an interpreter (Chinese, Japanese, etc) and I know those services cost a few hundred dollars each time we use it, so that should justify any cost.
 
matt2401 said:
Hey, now thats an idea I didn't think of! There HAS to be some type of keyboard communication device to use in a hospital. I think I will poke around and look. We have this special two handset phone for patients that come in speaking a language we don't have access to an interpreter (Chinese, Japanese, etc) and I know those services cost a few hundred dollars each time we use it, so that should justify any cost.
Click to expand...

Ubi duo. That is the device you seek.

My daughter is a nursing student and works part time as a PCT. If you study ASL it will make you popular with your deaf patient.
 
Thanks for everything you've done for your patient!

I'm sure you made a friend for life.


:D
 
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