Rarely am I ever rude to a patient. I find it counterproductive and non professional to say the least. Yet there are times when it's appropriate. Last night was such a case. The patient kept fidgeting with the Bipap and I was in the room continuously.
"You need to knock it off," I said. "I'm not going to be able to help you if you don't leave this alone. If you don't want it say so. Otherwise I have to keep it on you to keep you alive."
Of course this was after several attempts to make the mask as comfortable as I could. This time he pulled something out of the mask and I couldn't figure out where it went and his tidal volume was reading zero. It was the pressure line, so I knew he was getting plenty of air it just wasn't reading on the machine.
He was a D-Tox guy to make matters worse. And he said, "Fine. Take your mask and shove it. I'm not wearing it anymore."
"That's okay," I said, "I'll just set it over here and we can try it again later if you want."
I left the room and reported the incident to the nurse. That reminds me, in report at the beginning of my shift I was informed the man was a PIA, and if you don't know what that is I'm not telling.
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