Thank you so much for pointing out this idiotic situation. I can
relate to your experiences totally.
I am a 42 year old man who is also vent-dependant and requires
part-time nursing care. Most nurses sent to me are just as ignorant
about vent and respiratory care as the ones sent to care for your son.
The nursing agency supervisor always asserts the nurses sent out
are "certified respiratory care nurses". Whatever that means! I've had
nurses out here that can't suction, don't know what a PulmoAid machine
is, or even how to turn the vent on or silence the alarms.
When I sometimes get angry and frustrated about this stupid
situation and confront the nurses about their lack of knowledge, they
usually counter with the same reply, "In the hospital, the respiratory
technician (RT) usually handled it." In other words, they worked in a
pulmonary care ward where they had no hands on training or experience.
This is supposed to justify something?
The problem as I see it is, the medical establishment (in its
infinite wisdom) is wrongly trying to apply the same standards it uses in
facilities to private homes. They are so wrong! Home care is absolutely
nothing like institutional care, or should it be!
They need to wake up and change these standards, before some ill
trained nurses kills someone, if they haven't already. Good luck!
Blane
:-)
On Sun, 5 Jul 1998 21:17:00 EDT DChare6704(AT)aol.com writes:
>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?
>
>