Long term trach patient, been with us almost three weeks waiting on placement that kept falling through. His daughter decided she was taking him home instead. First few days she wouldn't even look at the stoma, just held his hand and stared at the wall.
Today she did the whole inner cannula change and suctioning herself while I stood there with my hands in my pockets. Didn't say a word to her the whole time. She finished, looked up at me, and said "that's it?" like she was almost disappointed it wasn't harder.
That's it. That's the whole shift as far as I'm concerned. Who else lives for the teaching moments more than the actual procedures?
Posted anonymously. Your name is never shown.
Post replyThe ones who wouldn't look at it on day one always end up being the best at it. Every time.
Love this for her, but "that's it?" would make me a little nervous. The routine change on a calm day with a nurse in the room isn't the hard part. Hope she gets to walk through the scary scenarios a few times before discharge too.
The hands in the pockets thing is so real. I had to physically sit on my hands the first time a wife did her husband's PEG care because I kept wanting to fix how she held the syringe. She did it fine. Took me longer to learn to shut up than it took her to learn the skill.