Often, human beings make bad story tellers. Today's experience taught me something; to always be careful in whatever we do.

The story:

At 0915hours, one of my colleagues received a call from the dental clinic. The nurse informed that one of my patients had slipped from his wheelchair and fell. Also, they told us they will not proceed with the appointment and will send the patient back to our ward.

After that incident, the nurse manager of the dental clinic kept calling the ward, trying to "push the blame" to us WHEN THE PATIENT HAD FALLEN AT THEIR SIDE, NOT OURS. The accusations they made --
#1: "Why didn't you tell us the patient was on fall precaution?"
Like hello, can't you see the yellow colour wrist tag the patient is wearing? Besides, he has been there for the third time already! And patient is a stroke case. Doesn't that ring a bell?!

#2: "Your nurse didn't remove his TEDS stocking, that's why he slipped off. How can like that?"
I personally pulled up his stocking to above his ankle (as witnessed by the in-charge and my student) before transferring him to the wheelchair. And when the patient came back to us, his stocking was still above his ankle. Yet they have the cheek to say "No, it was pulled down."

#3: "You know the patient is on fall precaution, very unstable yet you didn't send a staff down to accompany the patient."
Excuse me, since when is my patient unstable? If he is, the doctors would have hold off the dental appointment. And why do we even need to accompany the patient when we already have the portering service? My patient is not DIL (dangerously ill), neither is he on oxygen therapy. Besides, even if we were to accompany the patient, we will eventually be sent back to the ward after sending the patient down. SO WHAT'S THE POINT?

#4: "Why didn't you put on the seatbelt for patient?"
IDIOT, can you tell me how many seatbelt-equipped wheelchairs are there in SGH? Even our commodes don't come with seatbelts! And why didn't you blame the porter instead for bringing a wheelchair without a seatbelt?

So when the patient came back, the doctors asked him how he fell. He related, as soon as they (porter and himself) arrived at the dental clinic entrance, the porter informed the staff and left. Then while waiting for the nurse to attend to him, he felt like slipping off the wheelchair. So, he called the nurse to help him (like he did everytime he felt like slipping off from the geriatric chair in our ward). The nurse attended to him, but left soon after to seek help to reposition him. At that moment when the nurse was gone, he fell.

Judging from the patient's story, it was obviously negligence on their part. Why did the nurse leave a near-fall patient unattended? It shows the nurse lacked in assessing the patient, which led to the fall of the patient.

What was more disappointing was, our SNM (senior nurse manager) didn't even back us up. She refused to accept the explanation given by us, her own staff. So much for the "I care for my staff's welfare". Total B!

So, lessons learnt:
#1: It really doesn't pay to be helpful, you will tend to get dragged into the picture. Even when you are not the SN in-charge.

#2: Always make sure you are covered in whatever you do, be it black-and-white or having eyewitnesses.

#3: Be firm, don't get bullied by Sisters!