Work Place Accident

Yesterday, has been an extra challenging day for me at work. I was not really conditioned for it as I somehow slept badly the night before. I went to work expecting to have an online training day as my manager promised me before my day off, but unfortunately, one of our staff was sick so I had to forego my training to work on the floor. Anyway the morning was not as bad as I expected as we were managing so well and the team work was good. But the afternoon shift was a different story.

For legal purposes, I will not be mentioning the real names of the people involved in this article.

After lunch time our consultant suddenly rushed in the treatment area asking for a hand. An accident had happened in the consultation room. Apparently, our patient's wife and chaperone, who I will call Josie had a fall and dislocated her shoulder while trying to break the fall with her hand. The main reason was because the consultant did not provide her a chair during the consultation as there was not plenty of room for it and she tripped on the examination bed pedal as they were about to leave.

Because we were already short staffed, my manager of course asked me, the new joiner, to stay with Josie as we waited for an ambulance. Josie was sprawled on the floor and refused to get up when we arrived so I gave her a pillow and I had to sit on the floor with her. Being a private dialysis unit, we were not equipped for orthopaedic problems and we also weren't allowed to give none patients any medications from our stocks. Luckily, the consultant had some ibuprofen 400mg to give to the patient and one of my colleagues had a personal paracetamol which he kindly gave 1 gram to the patient. This was not good enough of course for an injury of such extent.

Unfortunately, since a shoulder dislocation, no matter how painful it is, is not classed as a life threatening situation the ambulance said they will collect her after hours as they were pretty slumped too with life threatening emergencies. This made Josie really upset and she started demanding for a private ambulance which was also unfortunately booked up. That's when all the screaming, yelling, cursing, and wanting to die speech started coming out. I could really empathise and see the pain she was going through, bless her. But unfortunately there was nothing I can do. She started screaming in Italian and I tried to distract her from the pain by trying to tell her about my Italian partner. It only worked briefly and she starts screaming again to get attention specially when she thinks we are calling the ambulance.

The ordeal took at least 4 hours. We did manage to sit her on a chair and improvised a sling with a blanket with a lot of screaming. And through her agony, poor Josie kept on worrying about how her diabetic husband with dementia and kidney disease will manage on his own without her. And who was going to stay with him overnight in case she ends up staying in the hospital. Thankfully, she had a sister who agreed to cancel her remote work to come to the rescue but will take time to arrive too. Josie verbalised to me that the most frustrating part of the situation was how long it was taking the ambulance to respond to her needs. She said it is barbaric and she even said in Italy if you have money you get attended as soon as possible. Anyhow, my colleague offered to drive her to the hospital just in time when the ambulance also arrived.

That situation took a lot out of me. I felt helpless as a nurse. The screams and cries took a toll on my spirit. I also feel sorry for the patient for how the healthcare system has failed her. I could only imagine how many Josie's are out there. The UK government has got to do better. I was trying not to cry as I went home. My colleague gave me a pat on the back and told me he was happy I was part of their team but I really felt like a failure today. I called my boyfriend and had a proper cry as I walked home. I hope Josie is now alright and sorted. And I hope her family can cope with this accident. I also hope this does not happen to anyone at all.