Can I contact a patient that I have encountered during a internship?

[daniduck]

I do not know if this is appropriate question... or a concern... i am an EMT student, and today, i was with ambulance internship.. and first run of the day was a man with suicidal thoughts. He was a well respected man. War veteran, and quite young. But as I was listening to him... i desperatly wanted to help him and as my preceptor and i were sitting in the back... i didnt say much, but there was alot i wanted to share... i was afraid to make matters worse or say the wrong thing... i could have said something.. but didnt find the courage and that i regret because that is what im lead to do. This is my 2nd ambulance shift... still getting used to.. but deeply regret not sayi ng or attempting to make him feel like someone cared.
The entire day, i replayed in my head of what i could have said
.. and thought maybe contact him via fb if hes reachable... idk... so my question is...
Is it OKAY, to contact a patient, knowing his or her condition, to make sure that her or ahe is doing alright.. be a friend to them. Reaching out to them? Do you guys do that with certain patients? My heart went to him... i want to help him badly ... help...?
Ik he would be in good hands.. but in reality sometimes, professional help isnt great option for SOME people... i just feel, if i have a slight chance to help someone just contacting them not on the clock, but as another person reaching out a person that is clearliy in need... in some way or another, potentially save and help a life...

 

[gotbeerz001]

No. It is not appropriate.

Your use of words "that is what I am lead to do"... What do you mean by that.

If you are looking to help people with long term mental illness, this is not the right venue. Our role is more procedural than clinical for the 5150 pt. We provide safe transport to the people that are trained to help.

 

[daniduck]

No. It is not appropriate.

Your use of words "that is what I am lead to do"... What do you mean by that.

If you are looking to help people with long term mental illness, this is not the right venue. Our role is more procedural than clinical for the 5150 pt. We provide safe transport to the people that are trained to help.

When i said, "that is what im lead to do.." meaning that, me helping people in this line of work for the time being...

I just needed to know if its something that i just have to let go... or just learn for it and pray that he is well and that his life would be better...

Thank you for your reply. Helps some.

 

[DesertMedic66]

It's best just to let it go in my opinion. If you dwell on every depressed patient that you get you will soon become depressed yourself and will start to hate the job.

Keep personal things at home and keep work things at work.

 

[Mufasa556]

You're new and you're learning. Reflecting on calls and looking for ways to improve your care, even if it's just speaking with a patient to show someone cares, is a good quality. Once you walk out the room and leave the patient, your contact with that persons ends.

The great thing about this job is that at some point those circumstances will come up again and you'll get to apply what you thought you should have done to a new patient.

 

[Ewok Jerky]

It would be innapprorpriate to contact any patient when off the clock.

You can look forward to having your cert and teaching the call by yourself and chatting with these peeps all you want while in the back.

Maybe you should look at a career in mental health or social work.

 

[joshrunkle35]

Remember that we in EMS are not usually definitive treatment. For example, when I put something like a simple bandaid on a patient, I never say, "you are all better now." I say, "this should do, but if you experience any pain, swelling, discoloration or infection, you should contact your doctor." I don't say these things as a legal cover for myself, I say them because I want to remind patients that the doctor is the definitive caregiver and that I am there because the doctor cannot be there and I am trying to encourage them to see the doctor for help. I am happy to help them again in the future, but it is always best that someone better trained than me give them better care.

...with that in mind: anyone from the cardiac to medical to psych patient and anyone in between is going to get much better care and advise than I can give from a doctor. And that is honestly almost any doctor. Yes, even a bad doctor.

I know you want to help them, however...they are not asking for your help. It would be entirely different if they asked you to check in on them or something.

Think of it like this: you take your car into the shop. Someone besides the mechanic shows up at your house without your permission and wants to talk to you about your house. That's really awkward. Now, instead of your car, make it, someone you don't know saw you at your worst, and now, without you asking, they show up and want to talk about it. Despite your intentions, it is horribly invasive. On top of that, they may be seeing a professional doctor now, post-incident, with 8+ years of full time schooling and countless years of study and practice beyond that, and yet you (with a couple months of emergency training and maybe a single class or two on psych patients) want to give them advice on their life. Please don't ever contact a patient privately. You will either lose or be denied your license or certificate, your school would possibly lose theirs, and it would make all EMS look bad. We are able to show up when people need us and they can tell us anything in the heat of the moment about their medical problems and they trust that we will keep them safe and their thoughts and feelings private (mostly within the medical world).

Even if you have good intentions, realize that you jeopardize the patient bond/barrier. Realize that it is unethical because you would be attempting to give new treatment that they may not wish for (otherwise they'd call EMS again). Realize that if they were transported, they probably saw and are now in the care of someone far more specialized than any of us, including an Emergency Physician. Realize that you are a student, not a caregiver yet, and that even they did ask you to follow up with them and that if the EMS service and the state, and the school, and the EMS service's medical director and the school's medical director were ok with it (which I can guarantee, none of them are), then you would still be attempting to practice medicine without a license, and would still be in for a world of a lawsuit.

If anyone ever does ask you to follow up with them the next day, you should let them know that your service/school does not allow that, but you can arrange to have someone follow up with them. If they walked up to you the next day and asked for advice, rather than give your own treatment/perspective, the best thing you can do is listen and say, "wow, it sounds like you've got a lot going on. I know that would be tough for me too. I really think the best thing to do would be to speak with someone who is a professional in addressing situations like these every day. Would you ride to the hospital with me so that we could get you some help?" And that's it. Don't give your input, even if you've dealt with the same thing. You can empathize and share your story, but don't try to tell them how to solve it.

If you want to help people like this, get a master's in counseling or social work or doctorate in psychology.

You should speak with your instructor(s) about this after your next class.

 

[OnceAnEMT]

I had similar thoughts relating to multiple patients in the ED, most of which were also SI related. As mentioned, contacting them in such a way would be extremely inappropriate, unprofessional, and could be breaking policies at your school or the service you are riding out with.

The best and most professional ways you can prevent these thoughts from occurring are documenting in full, communicating verbally the SI-related info, and contacting any state family/CPS departments as indicated by state law (for instance, in Texas we are required to personally call in to the family protection department in the event of suspected neglect or abuse). Instead of you following up with the patient (which isn't your job), make sure you have notified the right people (ED, state department if applicable) of the situation so that they can do their job and the follow up. All of us HCPs are a team, and if we start playing in each other's zones with too much overlap, we are going to ruin the play and lose the game.

Once you've taken care of business on that call, run through it, determine what you did and didn't do well, learn from it, and move on. Someone else needs your help now.

 

[JohnJ]

I would not make contact with the patient. I think that most of us have felt this way about patients or have had similar feelings in some way. It's just a bad idea to get involved in such situations. Our job is to make sure patients arrive at the appropriate facility in as good of condition as possible. Let those who specialize in mental health assist this individual.

 

[Tigger]

Most of us without a mental health background are ill equipped to actually help the very vast majority of people afflicted with psychiatric/behavioral conditions.