Week 5 Entry- Professional Behaviour

Situation:
63 year old female patient was booked to undergo urodynamic tests. Her history included urgency, urge incontinence, recurrent UTI's and dysuria. This patient was very anxious about having the tests done and also was very emotional about her current symptoms. She was clearly distressed about the whole situation and she was overwhelmed with the number/size of machines in the room as well as the number of people in the room. Throughout the process (catheters being inserted, bladder inflated) she became more and more emotional and distressed. She also found it extremely difficult to hold in large volumes during the testing so leakage was also occurring.

Task:
To maintain professional behaviour during the testing while also demonstrating sympathy and understanding for the patient.

Action:
After the testing was complete, I was asked to escort the patient to the uro-gynae clinic where she would wait for the consultant to discuss with her what the test results showed. The patient was still quite emotional at this time so I tried to explain some of the mechanisms behind what was actually causing her bladder to "misbehave". This gave the patient a better understanding of the reasons of why she was experiencing her symptoms. I tried to reassure her in that it is quite a common problem amongst older females and that many people are going through the same thing she is. The last thing I talked about before the consultant arrived was some simple strategies (bladder calming techniques) which she could use to help control her symptoms and hopefully avoid any accidents occurring in public places.

Results:
I think that I was able to use my position as a student to show this patient extra sympathy and understanding which helped her calm down. Once she had settled and was telling me more information I was also able to provide her with some education about her problems which she didn't seem to have received previously. She seemed very grateful for the time I had spent with her and the information I had provided.

Evaluation:
I think that I showed a good level of professionalism throughout the situation as well as demonstrating good communication skills in dealing with this complex patient. I was able to sympathise with her, which aided in calming her down, which allowed her to take in some extra information which could potentially improve her symptoms in the community.

Strategies:
To improve in the future, I could possibly be more specific about the facts related to the situation ie have a better idea of the proportion of women this can affect, the percentage of woman whose symptoms improve etc. This would just provide a little bit more reassurance and possibly some hope for the patient in that many people do improve and they too can improve and live a normal life.