I haven’t got any images to show but my head is full of them.
Yesterday I did my first session of shadowing on the Gynaecology ward. My first exposure was the early shift. The patients come in from 7.30, and by the time I arrived at 7.45, all my nurse’s patients were admitted and in beds waiting for their operations.
I was shadowing C, a young nurse, only 6 months out of college. She said she found women’s health fascinating and this was the job she had always wanted. She had two patients waiting for gynaecological operations, and two for terminations and I was able to follow her as she did observations and went through checklists with the patients to ensure that the correct information is recorded about existing health issues and current procedure. With the termination patients, she also has to ask if they are sure about their decision.
Both C’s termination patients were having a surgical procedure, but other women on the ward had opted for a medical procedure, where they are given medication that brings on a miscarriage. They are given private rooms while the others are in 4-bed bays.
The paperwork is a mixed blessing. It guards against mistakes, but then it becomes the focus and leaves little time for the nurses to talk to the patients. This was particularly clear with a young termination patient, who said she was sure she wanted the procedure. But shortly afterwards, she left the ward in tears saying she needed some fresh air, and didn’t return. Her doubts weren’t evident in the interview and C was quite shocked.
There is also little time to spend with patients having operations. The ward is treating women with problems in the most intimate and private parts of their body, and a gynaecological procedure touches much more than the physical. It is inevitable that nurses have to be businesslike and practical, and I’m not faulting them for their commitment and professionalism. They are very caring, but there is not much space for it to be expressed.
The remaining termination case was still in theatre when I left, after having been bumped from the morning list because of a longer than expected procedure, much to her distress. Today I’m back on the ward, following the afternoon shift, where the focus is on discharging the morning’s surgery cases, and dealing with out of hours emergencies.
Deep breath …
