Chew on this. A stranger is the x-ray technologist. You are the patient. You have the worst pain that you've had in your entire life. Now, what's on your mind? Maybe you're thinking, “I hope she makes this quick. I don't know if I can do what she asks.” You may also be thinking, “Will I be able to care for my children with this injury? When will the pain stop? Will I have to undergo surgery? Missing weeks of work will make me broke. Who will cook my meals, wash my clothes, do my shopping and drive me to my doctor appointments.” Pretty depressing, huh? But that's not my goal here, because we, as technologists, aren't out to solve a patient's problems. In fact, it's often useful to remind yourself of that fact. Also, I think it is important to remind yourself that your patients are often going through a really tough period in their life, frequently involving pain.
As technologists, our occupation is not unique in that we are in the presence of those in pain. Still, the questions I have are these: What does it mean to be in the presence of pain? It obviously varies from one health care worker to the next and one patient to the next. But does it eventually harden you to another's pain; make it easier to block it out? Or, can you develop an increased awareness or sensitivity to degrees of pain? Can you work to have empathy for every injured individual? What happens when they lash out at you because you just made their pain increase by changing their position? Does caring for those in pain take a toll on you over time? Or does it wash away just like the next rainstorm cleans the streets? One last question: is there really such a thing as a high tolerance for pain; and if that’s true than what is an average tolerance? Sorry to be such a pain… photo of my house from October '06 storm with collapsed tree
1 comments:
i think this is a very interesting topic. i also think people enter the health care fields because they want to help people, all people. pain varies so much from person to person that it truly is an assessment situation from the beginning. has the person worked themself into such a state that by taking a firmer approach to get them to calm down eases the pain? is simply talking to a pt. in a calm soothing voice and offering some understanding enough to ease their pain? is getting the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible so that they can go get much needed pain meds the answer? an emergency nurse friend of mine once told me how important they first minute of assessment is to proper care, i think it's the same in radiology. we can't forget that because we're short staffed or we think someone is being a "pain" that we entered the field for a reason. (hopefully to help people). just some thoughts from an old sono friend!!
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