WuLabsWuTecH
Forum Deputy Chief
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So this might be als a bit of me venting but it does get to a legitimate point.
For those of you who are have been around here for the last month, you might know about the call I'm talking about. More in depth info Here - Dispatched: Injured From Assault - A Messy Scene and Here - Helmets?
Quick rundown, messy call that we've been discussing a lot afterward not only just the decisions made during the call but a lot of other stuff as well. General concensus at my department is that we handled the call well and while there were alternate ways that we could have gone about it, no alternate progression was definatively better than ours. For clarification, the In Charge Medic (ICM) is a title that the highest ranked guy on the truck holds. this may be different from the person who is actually in charge of the call if the ICM decides to hand off the call to another person. For now we'll call this person the ICT (In Charge Tech). I was and EMT-B on that day, and we had a medic student rider (who is also an EMT-B on the department but he was acting as a rider that day and not staffing).
The ICM was driving the truck, and was not proceeding with due regard which ended with me losing bleeding control, and being thrown into a cabinet and hardcase kit, the ICT, being thrown airborne over my head, and the medic rider being thrown into the (forutnately padded) airway chair. I was luckily wearing my bulletproof vest still and when I hit the corner of the cabine and kit I did not suffer any injuries. I estimated that we were going about 50 mph through the intersection although others now think it might have been closer to 60.
Anyway, the point I am making is that with the scrutiny of the call as a learning experience for the entire department, everything on the call got scrutinized. Through the encourgament of the members of this forum, I filed an incident report on the driving issues of the ICM. It turns out I was not the only one who did so. When I told my Lt. he said someone else also talked to him about it. Anyways, I changed crews and haven't seen the ICM since until yesterday.
At shift change, he came in about 30-45 minutes early to start relieving staffing. He asked to talk to me privately outside away from my new ICM and new crew. My new ICM is also the Captain and as such is aware of my incident report filed.
He said to me that he wanted to talk to me about the call we took, (and he said "the call" as if it were the only one we've ever taken together) and I thought he was going to confront me about filing the report. But he instead told me that, (quotation marks are paraphrasing) "I received only one complaint about the call and it was about you. I just wanted to let you know that some of the nurses were not happy with one aspect of your behavior when you entered the hospital. I don't know if you remember it, but you said to our patient, 'stay with us now.' Try not to do that again, the nurses remarked that it can upset patients and visitors and some nurses were upset too. They don't like hearing things like that. Besides, it was a moot point since he didn't speak english anyway."
I thanked him for his advice and left. It wasn't until a few hours later that I realized he said it was the ONLY complaint he received that day as if he were dismissing the complaints about his driving (the LT said they would address the issue and do some remedial training and that knowing the personallity of this ICM, he might hold a grudge against us for a little bit of time)
Anyways, here is the question I was leading to: How do you talk to critical patients? The ICT asked me to start talking to him so I said things to reassure him when he started to fade out of consciousness. I sopke mostly spanish, but in the heat of the moment sometimes english should come out instead. Asking him to move this and that, and when I lost the work for a body part, oops, english!
I guess as we went into the hospital I decided to start talking to him in english again as he was fading out. (The pt was stabbed in this jugular and carotid and has lost about 2L of blood on scene and probably another 300-500mLs int he truck before we got bleeding aprtially controlled. I remember telling him in spanish we were at the hospital and that doctors were going to be around him in 30 seconds. But as he closed his eyes and started to nod his head to the side I think I did say "Stay with me now!" in english.
Now that I look back on it, I can see how it might upset patients and visitors, but I doubt in the literally 5 feet from the entrance to the building to the entrance of the trauma room, that that many patients were within earshot of us. Also, if nurses are upset at hearing that, then they have no business being in the ER. I've heard it said in trauma rooma many times, often with the wide "blast doors" to the room wide open.
Had I had to do it again, I think would have said the same thing (albeit in spanish). in the future I'm not sure I'd think twice about calling out to my patient and reassurring him that he needs to fight, although maybe after what I read here, you guys might convince me otherwise.
Right now I just don't think it was that big of a deal and maybe the ICM was just trying to make a point that he didn't take our complaints of his driving seriously.
I also don't see why a nurse would talk to him about it and not confront me. We were there 2 hours cleaaning up, and since we were in ballistic vests no one could see our ranks. Further, since he drove, if anything, the nurse should have thought that the ICT was the ranking member and not him.
Thanks for your opinions!
For those of you who are have been around here for the last month, you might know about the call I'm talking about. More in depth info Here - Dispatched: Injured From Assault - A Messy Scene and Here - Helmets?
Quick rundown, messy call that we've been discussing a lot afterward not only just the decisions made during the call but a lot of other stuff as well. General concensus at my department is that we handled the call well and while there were alternate ways that we could have gone about it, no alternate progression was definatively better than ours. For clarification, the In Charge Medic (ICM) is a title that the highest ranked guy on the truck holds. this may be different from the person who is actually in charge of the call if the ICM decides to hand off the call to another person. For now we'll call this person the ICT (In Charge Tech). I was and EMT-B on that day, and we had a medic student rider (who is also an EMT-B on the department but he was acting as a rider that day and not staffing).
The ICM was driving the truck, and was not proceeding with due regard which ended with me losing bleeding control, and being thrown into a cabinet and hardcase kit, the ICT, being thrown airborne over my head, and the medic rider being thrown into the (forutnately padded) airway chair. I was luckily wearing my bulletproof vest still and when I hit the corner of the cabine and kit I did not suffer any injuries. I estimated that we were going about 50 mph through the intersection although others now think it might have been closer to 60.
Anyway, the point I am making is that with the scrutiny of the call as a learning experience for the entire department, everything on the call got scrutinized. Through the encourgament of the members of this forum, I filed an incident report on the driving issues of the ICM. It turns out I was not the only one who did so. When I told my Lt. he said someone else also talked to him about it. Anyways, I changed crews and haven't seen the ICM since until yesterday.
At shift change, he came in about 30-45 minutes early to start relieving staffing. He asked to talk to me privately outside away from my new ICM and new crew. My new ICM is also the Captain and as such is aware of my incident report filed.
He said to me that he wanted to talk to me about the call we took, (and he said "the call" as if it were the only one we've ever taken together) and I thought he was going to confront me about filing the report. But he instead told me that, (quotation marks are paraphrasing) "I received only one complaint about the call and it was about you. I just wanted to let you know that some of the nurses were not happy with one aspect of your behavior when you entered the hospital. I don't know if you remember it, but you said to our patient, 'stay with us now.' Try not to do that again, the nurses remarked that it can upset patients and visitors and some nurses were upset too. They don't like hearing things like that. Besides, it was a moot point since he didn't speak english anyway."
I thanked him for his advice and left. It wasn't until a few hours later that I realized he said it was the ONLY complaint he received that day as if he were dismissing the complaints about his driving (the LT said they would address the issue and do some remedial training and that knowing the personallity of this ICM, he might hold a grudge against us for a little bit of time)
Anyways, here is the question I was leading to: How do you talk to critical patients? The ICT asked me to start talking to him so I said things to reassure him when he started to fade out of consciousness. I sopke mostly spanish, but in the heat of the moment sometimes english should come out instead. Asking him to move this and that, and when I lost the work for a body part, oops, english!
I guess as we went into the hospital I decided to start talking to him in english again as he was fading out. (The pt was stabbed in this jugular and carotid and has lost about 2L of blood on scene and probably another 300-500mLs int he truck before we got bleeding aprtially controlled. I remember telling him in spanish we were at the hospital and that doctors were going to be around him in 30 seconds. But as he closed his eyes and started to nod his head to the side I think I did say "Stay with me now!" in english.
Now that I look back on it, I can see how it might upset patients and visitors, but I doubt in the literally 5 feet from the entrance to the building to the entrance of the trauma room, that that many patients were within earshot of us. Also, if nurses are upset at hearing that, then they have no business being in the ER. I've heard it said in trauma rooma many times, often with the wide "blast doors" to the room wide open.
Had I had to do it again, I think would have said the same thing (albeit in spanish). in the future I'm not sure I'd think twice about calling out to my patient and reassurring him that he needs to fight, although maybe after what I read here, you guys might convince me otherwise.
Right now I just don't think it was that big of a deal and maybe the ICM was just trying to make a point that he didn't take our complaints of his driving seriously.
I also don't see why a nurse would talk to him about it and not confront me. We were there 2 hours cleaaning up, and since we were in ballistic vests no one could see our ranks. Further, since he drove, if anything, the nurse should have thought that the ICT was the ranking member and not him.
Thanks for your opinions!
