| Subject: Re: Unnecessary exposure |
Author:
Jack
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Date Posted: 21:18:16 11/02/09 Mon
In reply to:
Carol
's message, "Unnecessary exposure" on 16:45:20 10/21/09 Wed
This is a true incident that happened last Valentines Day when I drove myself to the local ER due to waves of excruciating abdominal pain. For a saturday afternoon, the waiting room was not that crowded and the triage nurse gave my symptoms priority over the few earlier arrivals.
Upon being escorted to the nurses station, I was shocked to see that the place was packed with patients in gowns on gurneys lining both sides of the hallways with many visitors standing around them.
The nurse assigned to me approached with a gown and a urine cup and said that I was to remove everything, put on the gown and showed me to the only empty gurney available right outside the nurses station. I asked her if she expected me to undress in the hallway. She made a remark that if I was shy, to get over it as there was no place to change in private! She left me with the gown in hand and a cup for a urine sample. Fortunately I was able to find a bathroom at the other end of the corridor to make my change and returned to my gurney after failing to provide the urine sample.
Unfortunately, I was not able to secure the open back on the gown and had to hold it closed with one hand while carrying my clothes in the other. Eventually, the nurse returned and asked for the sample. After failing to produce it, she said that I should try again and if unsuccessful, she would have to get the sample the hard way. I assumed that she meant a cath would be inserted and I made my way back to the bathroom to try again with the same amount of success as before.
Upon my return, a young lady, who was dressed in the same tan over brown colors as the nursing staff asked if I needed some help with tying the gown to which I gladly accepted and thanked her for taking the time to assist. As she was tying it off, an old woman seated 3 ft away remarked that I looked good in a dress!!!
After she heard my nurse's veiled threat concerning my providing a urine sample, this angel returned and asked if I would like some ice water. I accepted and remarked that it would have been nice for my own nurse to have offered. She laughed and I suddely realized that for a nurse she was always standing across the hallway near an old man with an oxygen mask on. When I asked her if she was part of the nursing staff, she pointed to the old man and said that he was her father and she was not a nurse or employed there!!!
Needless to say I was both thankful but somewhat embarrassed to have a stranger see my bare backside while fastening my gown due to an apparently overworked nursing staff.
The whole stay in the ER has more details but suffice it to say, should anyone have been put through a three ring exposure circus like this?
I can't believe that hospitals operate like this and although my assigned nurse tried to be funny in her demands, I was in intermittent pain and did not appreciate the jokes at my expense. Thankfully, the water worked and I was able to eventually give the urine sample but that was another story in itself.
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