Recently, I had my young son with Type 1 diabetes mellitus who was quite unwell. I just wanted to comment about how great it was to have a nurse floating in the waiting room completing regular clinical observations on the patients who had been triaged but waiting to see the doctor. Imogen was the nurse in the waiting room whilst we were there. She was so thorough with her assessments with my son and continued to check on us and I also noticed how genuinely caring and compassionate she was with all the other patients waiting. She mentioned this wasn’t her normal workplace area, but she was so competent and confident in her care and I am so glad she was working that afternoon, it made our experience so much better.
Having a young child with a serious chronic disease like type 1 diabetes and being unwell is very stressful. My previous experiences bringing him into ED overnight and waiting for hours in the waiting room without anyone checking on us had been extremely stressful and traumatic on many occasions where he actually deteriorated because he wasn’t monitored.
I’m not sure if having the waiting room nurse is a normal part of service delivery but I just wanted to say that I hope it continues with even more importance to have a nurse overnight when children typically present unwell to EDs. Imogen was amazing and I felt that I wasn’t the only patient/parent who felt the reassurance that someone was keeping an eye on us, particularly when sick children present to a mixed adult/paeds ED and how quickly children can deteriorate.
To further comment, it would be good to see in the future that paediatric patients and adult patients are triaged differently with an urgency for unwell children under the age of 5, particularly with chronic disease or a separate waiting area to prevent contracting other illnesses such as gastro/flu from patients in the waiting room.
Thank you again to Imogen and the consultant doctor who assessed us.
"Experience in ED Geraldton Hospital"
About: Geraldton Hospital / Outpatient Services Geraldton Hospital Outpatient Services Geraldton 6530
Posted by hydrusrp97 (as ),
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