[VENT-L] In-home nursing
DChare6704(AT)aol.com
Sun, 5 Jul 1998 21:17:00 EDT
We have home nursing care at night; in addition, we have a nurse who goes to
school with our son. One of the things I have found very disconcerting is the
lack of experience and technical know-how of many of the nurses which have
been sent to us by the agency. I have had nurses show up here to look after
my 9-year old son who don't know what an obdurator is, have no idea how to
put a nebulizer in line on the vent to give an inhalation treatment, and
basically don't know the first thing about a ventilator except that you have
to turn it on. Most of them have never heard of a pulse ox and wouldn't know
what to do with it; many don't know what a sleep study is and don't know
anything about CO2 or O2 levels. It's frightening because I speak to the
manager at the agency and, because she has no experience with trachs or vents,
she has no idea why I'm concerned. Our problem is that there are only 2
agencies which provide paediatric services - I left one because of problems,
and the problems are just as bad (in fact, worse) with the 2nd. It seems that
these agencies think that having a R.N. diploma means their staff can handle
anything. Has anyone else run into this problem and how have you dealt with
it?