Week 4 - tuesday

I found it very challenging today managing a patient that doesnot speak English as a first language. It was difficult to gain any subjective information from the patient and almost impossible to gauge an accurate level of pain that the patient was in. Although it was difficult to communicate he understood basic questions such as where are you, what is your name etc so it was possible to gauge cognition. I was able to encourage deep breathing and cough through demonstration which i found was fantastic. The main problem was with mobilising the patient and required 2 assist as prompting was not effective. This demonstrated to me the importance of clear concise instructions and feedback amongst other learning strategies that can be utilised through verbal communication.
Ambulating the patient was the final hurdle. It was particularly difficult because i was not sure how much pain the patient was in and had to gauge whether he was dizzy or unwell ect. i decided to use the PF to begin with because i thought this would be safest with 2 assist and the most efficient for the patient.
Overall i felt as though the situation was managed well and i felt confident to report in his notes. In future i think an excellent tool to use for the patient would be the VAS or BORG to be able to assess how the patient is feeling and even monitor BP, HR etc in supine vs sitting vs standing.
I am really enjoying being able to learn from such a vast variety of patients on the placement and look forwd to tomorrow.