In her shoes

At the facility I did my latest block at, there was a 48 year old female who had  scabies. Due to the fact that scabies is so contagious, nobody wanted to come into contact with her or mobilise her, as she was bed bound and could not do any functional activity independently. Some nurses did not even want to make up her bed. Most of the staff that refused to come into contact with her had small children at home and did not want to run the risk of them contracting it too.

The patient was left in bed for about a week during her very contagious phase. She was not allowed to go to the breakfast table and have breakfast with the other patients, she was not isolated in her own room, she still shared the room with other patients, yet hardly anybody interacted with her.

This was ethically incorrect behaviour by the staff at the facility. According to (Essential learning: Law and ethics, 2018), the four pillars of ethics are autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice. The staff was definitely not abiding by the justice pillar of ethics, as according to (Essential learning: Law and ethics, 2018), the justice pillar of ethics states that all people should be treated equally and fairly, yet this patient is definitely being discriminated against and  not being treated equally or fairly, as she did not receive the same attention and treatment the other patients did. People could have just taken precautionary measures like covering their clothes and wearing gloves every time they came into contact with her.

According to Stone (2016), having empathy towards a patient can improve their health outcomes and improve patient satisfaction, as they get more caring treatment. Stone (2016), also states that patients may arrive with anxiety, fear, pain and apprehension. This patient may have arrived with these emotions as she suffered from a CVA and is battling breast cancer and the way she was treated would most likely aggravate or cause the above mentioned emotions. She was not fully informed about her scabies condition, she was just told that people were not treating her and isolating her due to the rash on her arm. The lack of information and knowledge could have caused fear and anxiety for her, as she did not know if this condition she had was fatal or very dangerous or not.

As empathy improves the patient’s health outcomes, I noticed that the patient was not able to roll in bed independently and her progress plateaued, resulting in her being sent home. The patient must have felt so ignored and uncared for and possibly thought that she was not receiving the best possible treatment/medical care she should have been. This could have caused resentment and demotivation which could also have caused the stagnation/plateau in her recovery. The staff may have dealt with the situation differently if they put themselves in her shoes and empathised with her.

If this situation ever had to arise again, I would take the time to explain the condition to the patient, how it’s contracted and how we are going to take precautionary measures to prevent it from spreading. I would wear the protective gown and gloves with every interaction or treatment and just remind her why I am wearing it. If the patient is shown some empathy and kindness, it will most likely also affect her recovery in a positive way.

References

n.a. (2018, July 19). Essential learning:Law and ethics. Retrieved September 11, 2018, from Medical Protection: www.medicalprotection.org

Stone, J. (2016, December 13). The importance of empathy in healthcare. Retrieved September 10, 2018, from Medical GPS: www.blog.medicalgps.com