First I am gonna share with you guys the story about this call I did that prompted me to ask this question. You guys might think I'm really bad (or hopefully not) for saying these things to a patient, but I hope to learn from you guys, and not repeat this mistake.
Today I did a transport, and the hospital was very unhappy with the questions I asked the patient. I thought these were good questions to ask, but they told my partner (not me) that they were inappropriate questions and somebody needs to stop me. My partner wasn't in the room when I asked the question, and he listed off a couple of the things I said that was consistent with what I asked that bothered them, but he said there was more, and that he couldn't remember.
When I walked into the room, I introduced myself, verified she was the right patient by asking her name and checking her name tag/bracelet, and asked the patient how come they where here. We do interfacility transport, and this was dispatched as a 5150 (72 hour psychiatric hold in California) so I already knew. They didn't like that I asked why were they there.
The patient was a minor so I asked if the parents were present. They were also mad that I asked this. My partner said there was something about child protective service, or something, so maybe that's why. I still thought it was a reasonable question.
Here are questions I figured may have bugged them, but these are questions I started asking based off what the facility I transport to them ask. I asked if she had any intention to hurting herself or others, did she have a plan, and if she did, how she planned to do it. When I asked, she said she really didn't mean it, it was the heat of the moment, no plan. She just told somebody that she wanted to die. She is stressed out about school. I asked what grade she was in, and then asked if finals were going on and if that's why she's stressing? This was while the nurse was going in and out of the room, and the security gaurd sitting in front of the entrance of the room the entire time.
By then my partner said "I need to speak with you right now." and signal me to come over. He told me that the nurse and security (security sits in front of the room to make sure 5150s don't try to escape, hurt themselves, or others) said that I was asking "inappropriate questions", and that I need to be stop, I am not a psychologist, and it's not my place to ask these questions.
I think the nurse was trying to get me out of the room the entire time because she said "I'll give you a report outside of the room in just a moment", and I told her "Oh, my partner will actually take your report. He's hunting for you right now." She didn't like my choice of wording "hunting" either he said (like I said, they clearly complained cause he wasn't in the room when I asked these questions).
The reason I was asking these questions instead of him was because usually the EMTs here do an assessment by asking "Do you have any headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, shortness of breath, pain, chest pain?", they'll check vitals, lung sounds, and CSM in all extremities, and to me, that's not even really an assessment. If my partner is not present and paperwork is not ready, I'll try to do an assessment, and then I'll give a report to my partner before we start transporting (by the way, they trained us to report to our partner, but usually only AO questions, the list I told you with headache, dizziness, etc...., and if we see anything obvious like a g-tube).
I was pretty bummed because not only was one person mad, but two people where mad (the RN and security guard). To my partner, they made it sound like I was out of control. Neither of them spoke to me or stopped me (maybe cause they are too polite), and talked very negatively to my partner about me as if I was his problem, like a pet almost (that's how I felt), and they smiled at me the entire time. He didn't tell me it was the security guard too either until after the call ended, cause when I stopped, I just waited by the patient on the gurney while waiting for my partner, and the security guard and I talked too, and he was really friendly with me, and I just felt like he was being a phony to me instead (well, really being professional by still smiling and stuff at me).
I was really bummed with this call afterwards. I felt like I really screwed up. How bad am I really am if I couldn't even tell I was doing a bad job during the call? Had nobody told me, I would've continued to think I was doing the right thing.
Perhaps my partner felt I over stepped his role too
He was also telling me about the previous call, he didn't like that I told the parents about HIPAA either. We require a signature so they know their information is suppose to be kept a secret, but that their signature is giving us permission to tell that information to their insurance company so we can bill them rather than sending the bill to the family directly. If they don't sign, a bill will be sent directly to their address instead. He said that I need to be a people person, and just tell them that it's for keeping their info a secret (only tell them half of it, whether they sign or not, I am gonna keep the info secret).
TL;DR Anyhow, in short, tell me how bad I did. What I could've done to improve. If you work IFT, what kind of questions do you ask a psychiatric hold patient. What's involved in your assessment? Does it change for pediatric patients?
Today I did a transport, and the hospital was very unhappy with the questions I asked the patient. I thought these were good questions to ask, but they told my partner (not me) that they were inappropriate questions and somebody needs to stop me. My partner wasn't in the room when I asked the question, and he listed off a couple of the things I said that was consistent with what I asked that bothered them, but he said there was more, and that he couldn't remember.
When I walked into the room, I introduced myself, verified she was the right patient by asking her name and checking her name tag/bracelet, and asked the patient how come they where here. We do interfacility transport, and this was dispatched as a 5150 (72 hour psychiatric hold in California) so I already knew. They didn't like that I asked why were they there.
The patient was a minor so I asked if the parents were present. They were also mad that I asked this. My partner said there was something about child protective service, or something, so maybe that's why. I still thought it was a reasonable question.
Here are questions I figured may have bugged them, but these are questions I started asking based off what the facility I transport to them ask. I asked if she had any intention to hurting herself or others, did she have a plan, and if she did, how she planned to do it. When I asked, she said she really didn't mean it, it was the heat of the moment, no plan. She just told somebody that she wanted to die. She is stressed out about school. I asked what grade she was in, and then asked if finals were going on and if that's why she's stressing? This was while the nurse was going in and out of the room, and the security gaurd sitting in front of the entrance of the room the entire time.
By then my partner said "I need to speak with you right now." and signal me to come over. He told me that the nurse and security (security sits in front of the room to make sure 5150s don't try to escape, hurt themselves, or others) said that I was asking "inappropriate questions", and that I need to be stop, I am not a psychologist, and it's not my place to ask these questions.
I think the nurse was trying to get me out of the room the entire time because she said "I'll give you a report outside of the room in just a moment", and I told her "Oh, my partner will actually take your report. He's hunting for you right now." She didn't like my choice of wording "hunting" either he said (like I said, they clearly complained cause he wasn't in the room when I asked these questions).
The reason I was asking these questions instead of him was because usually the EMTs here do an assessment by asking "Do you have any headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, shortness of breath, pain, chest pain?", they'll check vitals, lung sounds, and CSM in all extremities, and to me, that's not even really an assessment. If my partner is not present and paperwork is not ready, I'll try to do an assessment, and then I'll give a report to my partner before we start transporting (by the way, they trained us to report to our partner, but usually only AO questions, the list I told you with headache, dizziness, etc...., and if we see anything obvious like a g-tube).
I was pretty bummed because not only was one person mad, but two people where mad (the RN and security guard). To my partner, they made it sound like I was out of control. Neither of them spoke to me or stopped me (maybe cause they are too polite), and talked very negatively to my partner about me as if I was his problem, like a pet almost (that's how I felt), and they smiled at me the entire time. He didn't tell me it was the security guard too either until after the call ended, cause when I stopped, I just waited by the patient on the gurney while waiting for my partner, and the security guard and I talked too, and he was really friendly with me, and I just felt like he was being a phony to me instead (well, really being professional by still smiling and stuff at me).
I was really bummed with this call afterwards. I felt like I really screwed up. How bad am I really am if I couldn't even tell I was doing a bad job during the call? Had nobody told me, I would've continued to think I was doing the right thing.
Perhaps my partner felt I over stepped his role too
He was also telling me about the previous call, he didn't like that I told the parents about HIPAA either. We require a signature so they know their information is suppose to be kept a secret, but that their signature is giving us permission to tell that information to their insurance company so we can bill them rather than sending the bill to the family directly. If they don't sign, a bill will be sent directly to their address instead. He said that I need to be a people person, and just tell them that it's for keeping their info a secret (only tell them half of it, whether they sign or not, I am gonna keep the info secret).
TL;DR Anyhow, in short, tell me how bad I did. What I could've done to improve. If you work IFT, what kind of questions do you ask a psychiatric hold patient. What's involved in your assessment? Does it change for pediatric patients?
