I was invited to be at the hospital before the patient went
for surgery and was confident I would have time to stay following her
surgery. I knew her husband would be
there so it was important that I didn’t try to “replace” him.
My role is to be sure he has his voice as the husband and
primary caretaker for the patient when she comes home the same day she has
surgery – probably too soon. When I got
there I saw that her body was marked, she had a warm blanket, she was getting
antibiotics and they had the patient’s list of allergies and medications. Everything seemed to be going fine.
I left with the husband, he went to have lunch. I came back in a couple of hours. The surgery was successful he told me and his
wife was sleeping. He got to see her
following the surgery. He had no
questions. I thought we waited long
enough. I suggested we go see her and we
were greeted by the nurse while the patient
was groggy in the hospital bed
slowly coming to.
“I went over all the discharge information with the patient”
the nurse told us. I asked the husband
if he knows the plan. He shook his
head. “Since the patient slept through
your instructions, I suggest you now tell her husband” I told the nurse. She wasn’t happy but explained the plans to
both of us. It’s no wonder there are so
many problems at discharge!
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