Final Evaluation
My final evaluation at my gerontology placement was anything but routine. My school supervisor is pretty full on and stated from the beginning that she expects us to be on the ball every time she sees us. It's only a three week placement so there's no time to waste. My final evaluation was on my last day of prac and I decided to choose one of my favourite patients for this evaluation. She has Parkinson's Disease and is a very sweet and lovely person but she does get some medication side effects that the doctors find questionable. I've seen her from the day she was admitted and saw her everyday since. I thought she would be the perfect patient, as I knew the most about her.
My supervisor comes in and I give her a verbal handover and progress to give her an elborate plan for treatment. So far, so good...We go into the patient's room and the nurse happens to be there to check her obs. I'm thinking to myself: this is perfect, my timing could not be any better. She's stable and everything seems to be going in my favour.
So I wheelchair her into the small Physio gym and get her on the plinth. I start with some easy rhythmic movements to decrease her tone. Then I quickly progess to sit her up over the edge of the bed and ensuring her feet are flat on the ground. I'm explaining that I want to do some sit to stands as a strengthening exercise. She's nodding and understanding everything I'm saying and even begins to initiate the movement when suddenly...she collapsed backwards and onto the plinth.
Damn, is she having a seizure? Her eyes and cheeks are tremoring and is not responsive to voice or pain stimulus. I go to press the call buttom but of course, there is no call bell in there. What we thought was a call bell, turned out to be the security bell. Good thing there were two of us in there because I had to run and grab the nurse, who then told me to also get the doctors. When I was gone, she came back around and was alert but felt unwell and was stuttering her speech. If that wasn't bad enough, two other nurses came and it got quite crowded in that small Physio gym.
The nurses took her stats and they were normal. I was then told by my supervisor to do a front on transfer to get my patient on the wheelchair and back into her room. That was exciting, having all the medical staff watch me and the nurses constantly asking if I needed help. They usually require two people to tranfser someone who needs maximal assistance and looked a little confused as to how I was going to be able to handle this on my own.
After all the excitement, I was not able to complete my treatment but at least the doctors are now going to conduct more tests to determine what, if anything, else is wrong with my patient. I just hope she gets through her problems, which goes beyond just her Parkinson's. She still was one of my favourites.
It's just one of those days that I will probably never forget and neither will my supervisor. That's never happened before during an evaluation and neither of us saw it coming. Reflecting back, it almost feels fitting to end my placement with such a memorable ending.
P.S. remember the security bell?? Well nobody ever came...That's some dodgy system in there. Good thing I was not in there by myself or I would've been screwed.
My supervisor comes in and I give her a verbal handover and progress to give her an elborate plan for treatment. So far, so good...We go into the patient's room and the nurse happens to be there to check her obs. I'm thinking to myself: this is perfect, my timing could not be any better. She's stable and everything seems to be going in my favour.
So I wheelchair her into the small Physio gym and get her on the plinth. I start with some easy rhythmic movements to decrease her tone. Then I quickly progess to sit her up over the edge of the bed and ensuring her feet are flat on the ground. I'm explaining that I want to do some sit to stands as a strengthening exercise. She's nodding and understanding everything I'm saying and even begins to initiate the movement when suddenly...she collapsed backwards and onto the plinth.
Damn, is she having a seizure? Her eyes and cheeks are tremoring and is not responsive to voice or pain stimulus. I go to press the call buttom but of course, there is no call bell in there. What we thought was a call bell, turned out to be the security bell. Good thing there were two of us in there because I had to run and grab the nurse, who then told me to also get the doctors. When I was gone, she came back around and was alert but felt unwell and was stuttering her speech. If that wasn't bad enough, two other nurses came and it got quite crowded in that small Physio gym.
The nurses took her stats and they were normal. I was then told by my supervisor to do a front on transfer to get my patient on the wheelchair and back into her room. That was exciting, having all the medical staff watch me and the nurses constantly asking if I needed help. They usually require two people to tranfser someone who needs maximal assistance and looked a little confused as to how I was going to be able to handle this on my own.
After all the excitement, I was not able to complete my treatment but at least the doctors are now going to conduct more tests to determine what, if anything, else is wrong with my patient. I just hope she gets through her problems, which goes beyond just her Parkinson's. She still was one of my favourites.
It's just one of those days that I will probably never forget and neither will my supervisor. That's never happened before during an evaluation and neither of us saw it coming. Reflecting back, it almost feels fitting to end my placement with such a memorable ending.
P.S. remember the security bell?? Well nobody ever came...That's some dodgy system in there. Good thing I was not in there by myself or I would've been screwed.
posted by Sub29 at 8:53 PM
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