Interaction with a Difficult Patient - Essay Example

"Interaction with a Difficult Patient" is a decent example of a paper on care.
The patient that I was dealing with was suffering from severe opportunistic infections as a result of HIV. They included tuberculosis, typhoid, and wounds on various parts of the body. The situation necessitated admission for closer attention to the patient. The hospital is organized in a way such that patients with similar ailments share rooms but in different beds. Most occupants sharing the room with the difficult patient were in critical condition and once in a while a patient would succumb to the illness and pass on.

The misunderstanding in my client arose as a result of the many deaths that occurred in the room that she was admitted. It occurred to her that once inside, there was no way she could ever get healed. She personally admitted this after two days in the hospital. Nevertheless, I and my colleagues continued offering the best care that we could afford. I monitored the patient’s health improving day by day until she decided to escape from the room without the doctor’s consent. It was so disturbing to me since she sneaked her way out of the room when I went for the afternoon dose. I raised the alarm but she could not be found.

The following day I kept closer observation to the other patients and ensured that the security person was alert. It happened that the little energy the patient had gained after two days of treatment had sustained her for the night. Her relatives brought her back the following day in a critical condition, to the extent that she could not recognize me. Her case was reported to the management and more efforts were made to resuscitate her condition.

After tremendous efforts to treat her, she woke up with a startle pooling all the energy left in her to yell abuses at me. She almost felt as she tried to hit me on the head. The situation became serious since she could not stop her assault. She claimed that I was intending to ensure that she is dead. My efforts to calm her down were met with concerted resistance. I had to flee from the ward when she reached for a cup by her bedside to throw at me. I reported the case to the security and the management who appreciated the fact that she was really a difficult patient. The management had to seek the services of a counselor to alleviate the disorder to allow treatment. All this time the patient refused medication. This adversely affected her treatment until the psychiatrist was successful in restoring her mental condition, which took a day. From then I was able to offer medication to the patient, but she succumbed to the infections as a result of the breaks in medication.

This experience significantly increased my understanding of relationships with patients. It is important for the patients’ mental status to be known beforehand especially for severe illnesses where optimism in the patient has been lost. Apart from attacking the doctors or nurses, a patient suffering a psychological problem may cause harm to others in the room. I also realized that patients’ behaviors and comments are important indicators of their psychological strength to cope with the ailment. I also realized that security is significant within and around the wards. In this case, the management concentrated security around the gate and the main entrance of the hospital.

As a result of this incident, I will put more effort to increase my knowledge and understanding of approaching aggressive patients and successfully calming them down. I will also try to increase my knowledge regarding the influence of environmental factors on patients. This will mainly be based on the fact that the reactions of the patients to the hospital environment culminated in anger and hopelessness. I would like to deal with a patient possessing similar ailments in a different environment, for example in a room with a single occupant. Generally, this experience presented a learning opportunity and also helped me to visualize the knowledge gaps that I need to seal in my profession.