Up until now, everyone who has cared to follow me and my patient’s case since it’s social media debut in 2011 knows how things got started, what the issues are, and where I am now. What people do not know is what happened the next morning with the physician staff, the nurse manager, the dayshift nurse, the case manager, and the patient. I write about it now in the hopes that it will be a learning tool to teach anyone involved with caring for patients in hospital like settings what happens when there is no multidisciplinary model of care that places the patient at the center and encourages collegial discussions and healthy communicative relationships among providers.
The next morning, April 13, 2011 unit secretary, Kristie Reed, reported in her testimony to the nurse investigator that a physician had been extremely loud and upset in the nurse’s station—that evening when I came on for my shift she pointed at me and called out my name. With a smile on her face she loudly yelled out that “Whatever you did to your patient last night really got Dr. Chuang upset, he threw some tantrum this morning and he was MAD!” Kristie later reported to the nursing investigator that she “didn’t know who the doctor was that was yelling.” Kristie also made sure to report to the nursing investigator that I as a nurse “was a know it all” and spent the most time out of any of the nurses “printing out education for the patients.” As if it’s a crime. The case manager interviewed by the nursing investigator felt my teaching of the patient was inappropriate and out of line. (Since when does a case manager who is not a nurse have the ability to judge nursing practice?) The dayshift nurse manager told the nursing investigator that my teaching was “above and beyond what any patient should be able to understand,” and the patient was told by numerous staff, including a transplant educator, how “sorry” they were that the “nurse did what she did.”
The patient, in their testimony, reported seeing everybody who came into their room “angry and upset” and they didn’t know why, but “eventually agreed that the night nurse probably shouldn’t have told me all those things.” The education I provided the patient was then taken out of the room, taken apart, and yes—- later photographed by the state board of nursing for their “official report.” One of the biggest “offenses” was that I had placed extra highlighters and pens for the patient to use in an empty biohazard bag (essentially a ziplock bag with a symbol on the front) so they wouldn’t get lost. I know, it was something out of NCIS. The patient, at that point, verbalized they were no longer comfortable having me as a nursing care provider following the events occurring after my time with them. The nursing director Venus Gaines thought herself quite knowledgeable when asking me where on earth I got the idea that the physicians were even thinking “hospice” as an option, and that no one had been exploring hospice as an option for this patient. Venus was appropriately stupefied when I informed her that there were indeed references to hospice as a viable option within the physician progress notes if she had cared to read all of them as I did before making my care plan for the patient. Her main concern was that “the physicians are really upset that you messed up all of their hard work.” She did not share my ethical concerns about the patient.
Here is what I see in all of this. An unfortunate and disgusting display of ego and power that has no place in carrying out the safest, most ethical, patient centric care. (Yes, I know I’m not supposed to know anything about healthcare ethics or how and when to apply them to my practice) This patient went from telling me that they were thankful to me as a nurse for being “the only one who has taken the time to ask me what I understand and whether I had questions or concerns” to “uncomfortable with the nurse” as a direct result of the confusing course of events from the next morning.
The nurse patient relationship which is built on an intimate trust and rapport was breached by ego and priorities that were anything but on the patient and their needs. This patient did not have, on record, any sort of multidisciplinary meeting notes during which different healthcare providers all came together to discuss the progress and goals as they pertained to the patient, or their “vision” for “their future.” I know… I read that chart from start to finish. It’s how I build my care plans. In fact, the lack of multidisciplinary meetings amazed me because of how extremely complex this scenario was and it was the reason I wanted an ethics consultation.
What I found tragic is that one discipline would think its even remotely appropriate to undermine or criticize another one in the presence of a sick and vulnerable patient. That members of the healthcare “team” were so eager to destroy the trust and confidence a patient has in a nurse when there are conflicting interests at hand was probably the thing that nauseated me the most when I learned about all of it. This patient was harmed in numerous ways—they were scared and intimated the next day with the outward display of anger all around them, they were deprived of the ability to trust nursing personnel after being told “I was wrong to teach” them anything, their rights to self determination were taken away when the room was stripped of all patient education, and they were left in a vulnerable state unsure of who to trust and turn to for the truth. No patient should have to feel scared or nervous about who to trust and feel safe with while in the hospital–it should, for all intents and purposes, feel like somewhat of a reassuring “you are in the right hands” kind of place to be in when you are at your sickest and most vulnerable. The staff at Banner Del E Webb deprived my patient of that the next day carrying on as they did. From that point on, its safe to say that anything they had to tell the patient was probably met with quiet submission, rather than a spirit of self advocacy–a concept the patient actually began to take hold of the night we talked together.
Self empowerment—the empowerment every human being deserves to have, was taken from them too. No healthcare discipline has the right to sway a patient in one direction or another with fear or intimidation, or away from trusting one discipline versus another. Its immoral, its unethical, and unfortunately it is what happens when there are numerous people all working with one patient, but each with a completely different goal or belief system. Ever heard the saying “You ask ten doctors in one room what a nurses job is and you will likely get ten different answers?” A case manager who is not a nurse has no right to judge the competency or professionalism of a nurses practice, no physician has the right to decide what information a patient gets or doesn’t get, or define what nurses “do or don’t do,” and no healthcare provider has the right to destroy the fundamental trust a patient has in his/her healthcare team members. In this scenario a very pertinent question to ask every one of the players who took part in the theatrics the morning after my care– “Do you remember who you were when you decided to get into healthcare?” If not…well, then, perhaps you need to rethink the answer. Because no matter how anyone spins this case, a patient was directly harmed that morning. By every member of the healthcare “TEAM.”
I wanted to share the course of events (that can indeed be corroborated) so that it would serve as a learning tool to any healthcare provider that reads it. One of my dreams had been to teach a university course that would begin showing medical students, nursing students, and social work students how to communicate with each other from “day one.” It was to be a two semester university level course that would begin to change how members of the healthcare team would view each other’s contributions, how to effectively collaborate for the good of the patient, and each other, while promoting a healthier more collegial work environment for all. But seeing as the Arizona Board of Nursing thought it appropriate to inform the ASU Doctorate Program (prematurely) about my case before it was even concluded—that dream has come to a screeching halt as well.
Hopefully this blog entry is the beginning to change, my hope is that people will examine how this played out and see where things broke down (root cause analysis), perhaps it will even inspire some discussion and debate about how to prevent it from ever happening again in the future……