Input needed!!!

Dear Everyone, I had gastric bypass surgery at Christiana 4 months ago. I am a nurse educator at St. Francis Hospital and, as many of you may know, Drs. Irgau and Wynn will be doing surgery at St. Francis starting at the end of the month. I will be doing "bariatric sensitivity training" for the nurses here to make sure that they will treat the patients with dignity and respect. To make my presentation as meaningful as possible, I would like to include some "real life" stories about how obese patients have been treated during hospitalization. I was looking through some of your profiles and found a few comments, but I need some more. If you would like to contribute a story or comment, please feel free to post a reply or email me at [email protected]. Of course, I will not include any names in my presentation, so you can be assured that confidentiality will be upheld. Thanks to all. Betsy P.S. I am the DE board's Number 1 lurker!

i've not had my surgery yet BUT I found some critques athe the Bariatric Hospitals review link (in the left column) very interesting. That may give yoiu some of what you are looking for. Gigee

Thanks, Gigee!

Hey Betsy! Long time, no see/talk! The nurses I had at Christiana 5D were awesome! Each of them was kind and caring, none of them seemed to be judgemental in anyway. Every single nurse and patient tech, urged me to take the pain meds (even though I was being tough), and they treated me as if I were a member of their own family. I think that is important. If this was a member of your family, how would you want them to be treated? Of course, anyone in nursing should be like this...but, we all know that doesn't always happen. I think if the nurses listen to the patients and realize there are few limitations, urge the patients to get up and walk as soon as they come out of anesthesia, use the spirometer, SIP the juice when it is (FINALLY) given! And be kind, but firm, I think the transition into this new phase of nursing will go well. I still go to 5D to visit new post ops and stop to say hello to my nurses. They are all so excited to see the smaller version and they seem to take pride in it. I hope things go well with the Gastric Bypass unit at St. Francis. Good luck to you, Betsy! Valerie

Betsy, Didn't know this about St. Francis. Does this mean they will operate in both places or are they planning to ditch Christiana Hospital? I hope not!! Inquisitive minds want to know. I had a small problem with the nurse that was assigned to admit me on my surgery day. She said out loud, I doubt if You'll find a vein in her arm. Thank God the 2nd nurse was the one that actually did find the vein and on the first try. I was happy and smug that the insensative (sp) nurse was wrong. Not all obese people have bad veins. Maybe you could have a few of us posties speak at your meeting. Then the nurses could ask away first hand. Could be interesting!! Elissa

Hey there, Betsy! Over all, I think the sensitivity levels at Christiana seem pretty impressive. The nurses on 5D were particularly patient and good-humored. However, there was one situation that I found offensive. A woman who was transporting me in my WC spoke to her co-worker as though I were essentially non-existent, as though I were a laundry cart. Now I can handle being ignored, however, when she said: "I'm going to need help with this one ...my back can't take it", I had an intense desire to ... hmmmm ... harm her? I work in LTC and am a quality of life advocate ... I'll chalk this up to a first-hand experience of what it's like to be an "invisible" and apparently deaf patient! And I didn't even have to pay extra for the little impromptu in-service on dignity and respect! Honestly, I dealt with it fine, but since you asked ... Hey, good luck in the gathering of your data, Betsy! Take care! Sandi

Thanks everyone for all of your help. The docs will be using both hospitals for surgery, Elissa, so don't panic! I would love to have you guys talk to the staff, but I will be doing the same class about 10-15 times in order to capture as many of the staff as possible. I will definetly be quoting from your posts. Thanks again Betsy

Hello Betsy, I had my surgery back in Oct '04. Like everyone the all nursing staff on 5D were great. The main thing next to sensitivity is understanding. Understanding were we ( obese ) people come from and what we are striving for. Be friendly and talk to the resident. Offer more then "may I see your id band" and maybe a shoulder to lean on if needed. When I was in for 2 days I know there were a few cna's and nurses that made me feel like I was just a vital and some actually took the time to get to know me even for a day. Good luck and hope everything goes well, Cynthia P

Hi Betsy, I didn't have any trouble with any comments made. I was concerned more with the lack of staff they had. There were times that I pushed the button and needed help unplugging the machine or felt pain and no one responded. Same with my roomate. They advised us that they were understaffed. The problem is that if anything major went wrong (and thats very possible) then no one would've responded to the call and possibly could've been too late. Also the fact the no one came in to make sure we walked was a concern and to help us unplug our machines since we had to struggle to get behind a counter to unplug and re-plug them. Otherwise everyone seemed nice and considerate. Also the fact that the staff that normally does the blood and iv's were understaffed and I unfortunately was poked full of holes! They kept going right through my veins and eventually I had to make them stop. I also was concerned because I had severe cramping in my stomach while I was walking and almost fell ... (fell into the counter) and NO ONE helped me. A girl at the counter said "are you alright" I said "no I think I need help getting back to my room" she looked around and that was it and said.. "oh hang in there" No one helped me back! I just sort of hung out at the counter for awhile and the spasm finally subsided and I wobbled back to my room. - not good. Hopefully St. Francis will be better staffed. Elizabeth M

Elizabeth, I had my surgery way back in Oct 2003. The staff was great, but we were not in the gastric bypass wing, because it was undergoing reconstruction. As such, we were mixed with the normal population. My roommate was a stabbing victim, so he got a lot of attention. I think also being a male left me out of luck on getting a gastric bypass roommate, since all the other patients that day were women. I thought that the nurses were outstanding, although I did have to pretty much take care of myself as far as getting up and walking, getting in my liquids, and taking care of my pain meds. Figuring out the gown(s) was a lenghty process. And certain things like collecting output and even washing up were not explained very well and what seemed simple got complex when you didn't have someone around to ask questions. The one incident I did have that probably was much more embarrassing for the student nurse than for me, is when she spilled my drain pouch on me while checking it. She cleaned it up as best she could, but it actually took a few hours to get the whole thing cleaned up. When the student nurses were there, they did not seem to have much supervision available. All of the staff though was extremely pleasant and anxious to help. The nutritionist and pulmonogist could have coordinated their input to the processs better by working with PMRI and the surgeons. Rob