Healthcare Humble

Woooo buddy. That pretty much sums up my feelings about everything I am going to write in this blog entry. WOW!

Have you ever met someone so incredibly smart they somehow also managed to be complete morons? Well, that is kind of what I feel like I have been dealing with during this hospital stay.

You can check out more specific details on my other posts titled PICU Party. This post will be more about professionals in general.

During our stay we have had A LOT of issues with miscommunication, lack of communication, and professionals who have just proved several times that they have not educated themselves on my child whatsoever.

Monday night I finally lost it. I was on my third night in a row at the hospital, running on very little sleep, deeply concerned about my baby, and myself and the night shift doctor just did not vibe. This was largely based on the fact that they came in telling me conflicting information to what I was told during the day by other doctors. Also several things that were said kind of tipped me off to the fact that this person must not have actually read any information on Everette or her history, or any of the others doctors notes, prior to her walking into the room. But yet, here they were, somewhat demanding I follow a certain protocol to feed my child and making statements about her urinary health, that was largely based on assumptions.

I think that entire interaction triggered something in me. It was so frustrating to have been following the suggestions of all the doctors and nurses, including things that I actually disagreed with or felt wouldn’t work. So when this doctor, who had been in our room for the very first time ever, came in with a very demanding attitude, suggesting something I felt was very invasive and not necessary, I was absolutely upset. Things just got much worse when I realized she was trying to make suggestions but didn’t have the correct information about Everette to begin with. It was very off putting that she didn’t want to listen to anything I had to say and seemed to be more interested in being right. I was polite at first, but then I got angry. I was tired, frustrated, struggling to get my child to eat, hearing her cry out in pain and discomfort, being confused about where she was and why things were so suddenly different. The last thing I wanted was to argue with a doctor, whom I had just met, who was very uninformed about my child, about what would be best for Everette.

So my question is this, when you are coming in, full force, you say a few things that are incorrect or things that get a very negative reaction, when do you stop? As a very education professional, when are you willing to admit that maybe you are wrong, or you don’t have enough information to be making certain statements? And why as an educated professional is it so hard to just apologize, step back, read over information again, ask questions, and go from there?

One thought is that professionals, specifically doctors of course want to be trusted by their patients. So if they do admit they may have been wrong about anything or uninformed or overlooked some information, then maybe the patient or the patients representative will not trust what they say anymore and question everything.

Even though you’re smart and a doctor, sometimes you need to go back to the basics. Listen to parents and pay attention to patients. Read patient charts. Work on communication.

**This was written while Everette was in the hospital. Not many of my feelings have changed and I am still completely flabbergasted by the things that happened during our time there. So many mistakes were made, and not from just being a human, but active neglect and indifference.