The sitter patient

Okay, so I lied. It's midnight, but it's not so quiet. There's a fair amount of activity going on outside, outside being out in the hall. I'm stuck in my patient's room tonight. He's what we call a sitter patient, meaning: he needs a babysitter. And that sitter is me. I'm not sure if I am a better or worse choice for dealing with sitter patients since I have little kids at home. Taking care of a sitter patient is kind of like taking care of a two year old, except heavier, stronger, and with a lot more stuff attached to them. You know, important medical stuff that they just can't wait to rip off their body. I like to think that I have a slightly higher than average patience level for dealing with this type of patient because of my kids, but sometimes I think that maybe this patience is all used up by the time I get to work. Or vice versa.


Tonight my patient is a fairly pleasant gentleman who became delirious after a series of unfortunate events, starting with a fairly major surgery. Delirium is a pretty serious thing for hospitalized patients; studies have shown that there is a correlation between delirium and all sorts of negative patient outcomes. I understand this, but I have to tell you, this guy is crazy. Hallucinating, talking about (and insisting on) things that don't make sense, pulling at his feeding tube and his catheter. He got a big dose of a sleep aid at bedtime, but he still wakes up regularly to scratch his nose or pull his blood pressure cuff off. Now that most of the care has been done for him and it's time to sleep, my job pretty much just consists of sitting by the bed and telling him to stop and to go to sleep. I'll do this for 5 more hours.


The worst part of having a sitter patient for the evening is being stuck in the room. We're not allowed to have personal drinks in patient rooms so sometimes hours go by with no water, no bathroom break. Definitely no snacks. Sometimes patients will be trying to climb out of bed, over and over again, or otherwise attempting to (accidentally) injure themselves, making the job that much more trying. We can restrain patients if need be, but this is usually reserved for really out of control behavior as this usually just makes people mad. I'm a fan of the chemical restraint myself (hello sedatives!) but these are usually limited as they tend to make things worse for the patient in the long run. So here I sit. Who says nursing isn't glamorous?