Jennifer: Hi. Are you tired?Male Patient: Yeah.Jennifer Yeah. Are you happy to have a very quick chat with me?Male Patient: Yeah.Jennifer: Those are fine. I just want to make sure that there's nothing happening that we need to help communicate.
My name is Jen Morrison. I work in alcohol and other drugs nursing at Campbelltown Hospital. So, I do hospital consult liaison. I'm the liaison between the patient and the hospital.
Yeah, he didn't elaborate.
He was transferred from a detox unit, a local detox unit, slash rehab unit with a seizure. So it's not typically just one particular kind of patient that we see everyday. It's always an interesting range of different conditions and comorbidities that we see.
Jennifer: I'm going to talk to Dr. Yousif and see what he says because the withdrawal is going to be slightly different. I know you're feeling uncomfortable. I need to look at your eyes.
Male Patient Yeah. I really need something that's going to take this away.Jennifer: His pupils are still three.
He came in feeling very unwell and he was quite concerned about withdrawal. So, this morning we were able to speak to him about different treatment options.
It doesn't taste particularly nice, but within 15 to 20 minutes will start to take effect, and we should notice an easing of the symptoms.
So, it's a lot about respect and showing them that you do respect them, that you're not judging them, that there's no stigma involved and that you're here to help them. And you're genuinely interested in how you can make their life better.
Excellent. We'll see you shortly.
It's really about if you're giving them positivity, you're giving them connections, you're making them feel like they can talk to you and they can actually benefit through nursing care. I get a lot of job satisfaction out of these people coming in. They're saying to me, oh, you know you're treating me really nicely. You're being very kind to me. It's very difficult to ask for help. It's very difficult to disclose that things may be out of their control.
Jennifer: How you doing? How did you go last night?Female Patient: Good, good.Jennifer: Sleeping okay?Female Patient: Yeah.
Jennifer: This young woman came in about a week ago, very unwell. And had what we believe is a withdrawal delirium. And over the last week or so of treatment, we've watched her become more and more like herself.
So, I'm just going to call the doctor and see what the doctor says. I'll come back and let you know what they say.
I don't go to work with a sense of oh, I've got to go to work today. I go to work and I'm like, what will I learn today? Because there's always something different to learn. There's this big world that you can expand on. And there's so many different areas. Like you do community, there's the blood borne virus clinic. Like you can do smoking cessation, pregnancy, youth. Like there are so many different options.
Jennifer: So I've spoken to the doctor and if treating team are happy for you to go home, then we're happy for you to go home.Female Patient: Yay!Jennifer: Yay! You've been amazing. You've done really, really well. And you trusted us when you were really scared. And you were feeling very vulnerable. So, you did very, very well, okay.Female Patient Thank you so much for your help.
Jennifer: There's a power in them taking back that part of their life and saying, these are the things that I want to change and working through that. I like sticking up for the underdog. I like advocating for people, and it gives me personal satisfaction because I know that I contributed to their care. And that makes me feel good about what I do.
Thank you so much.