Primum non nocere. It is Latin and it means “First, do no harm.”
It is a concept which is taught in medical schools. Its basic purpose is to serve as a reminder to physicians and other medical professionals to consider any possible harm an intervention might cause.
I am assuming that “intervention” in this sense means medical treatment.
That said a recent experience made me wonder if a nurse I encountered missed that day in class.
I required surgery recently. Never a pleasant concept, it was, however, necessary.
My 84-year-old mother insisted upon accompanying me for this two-day procedure. Always a determined and stubborn woman, she is not the type to be told what she can and cannot do. Far be it from me to tell her to stay at home.
The first day was tests to rule out certain diseases. The second day was the surgery.
Herein lay our dilemma: no one was available to take us to and from the hospital either day. Everyone we knew was either sick or unable to take a couple of days off from work with only a one-week notice.
We did what we had to do. We arranged for a medical transportation service to drop us off at the hospital one day and pick us up the next day. We stayed overnight at a cheap motel. We used taxis to get from point A to point B. It was the most efficient and least expensive way we could come up with in order to get things done.
My mother walks with a cane and couldn’t possibly drag around an overnight suitcase. So we did the best we could. We threw a few absolute necessities into a backpack. It wasn’t as heavy as an anvil but it wasn’t light as a feather, either.
Believe me, I did not relish the idea of my mother dragging around the backpack, but it wasn’t like we had much choice in the matter.
The day of the surgery I was taken into the pre-op room where this nurse made all the necessary preparations, including the filling out of yet more paperwork and giving me a sedative. I had inadvertently left some paperwork in the backpack with my mother who was in the waiting area.
So this nurse left to get my mother and the backpack (we didn’t realize she could stay with me in the pre-op area).
The first thing this nurse said upon returning to the room was, “This thing is heavy! She shouldn’t be lugging this thing around!”
The “thing” she referred to was the backpack and “she” was my mother.
But that wasn’t the worst of it. Each time a person entered the room, regardless of who he or she was or what he or she was there for, this nurse said, “Feel how heavy that backpack is!” This comment was made in a most judgmental and condescending tone, as though I were some horrible person forcing my mother to do something against her will.
It irritated me to no end each time I heard this nurse make the statement. The sedative kept me off-balance. I wasn’t thinking clearly or quick enough to respond.
My stress level was pretty close to maximum endurance. And this nurse wasn’t helping.
Just before being taken into the operating room, once again this nurse told someone, “Feel how heavy that backpack is!”
I was finally able to say, “It’s just me and my mother and we’re doing the best we can!” This comment was ignored by the nurse and everyone else involved.
Had I been thinking clearly I would have told this nurse she was welcome to walk in my shoes for a minute before judging me. Actually, had I been thinking clearly I would have told this nurse at the top of my voice to leave my room and then proceeded to complain to whoever was above her.
It was a humiliating experience which affected me in the recovery room where I burst into tears for no apparent reason. The stress had finally gotten to me, even though the surgery was over. Just thinking about my poor mother having to keep track of that backpack and this nurse’s comments was more than enough to torment me and added to my already stressed state of mind. I was so unsettled about the whole ordeal that I couldn’t even bring myself to explain to the nurse in recovery why I was crying.
Nurses are supposed to be compassionate, aren’t they? Aren’t they supposed to be a soothing aspect in the healing process, not to mention have a calming effect prior to something as traumatic as surgery?
Or has that changed? Do they no longer teach “First, do no harm” in medical school?
Or was this nurse absent the day that particular medical ethic was taught? Or did she just not care? Was she vicious by nature?
Nurses like that shouldn’t be working in a hospital. They should be mucking out horse stables.
Luckily, all the rest of the nurses I encountered during this experience were kind and compassionate and this one nurse won’t spoil that.
But she certainly did her damage.
Maybe she needs a refresher course.
