My Story..My Life...

Something is bothering me today...and I cannot shake it off my head...

There is this patient in the ward who is very aggressive due to his Alzheimer's disease. He will swear at you, punch you, kick you and anything you can think of. Although exasperated and most of the time fustrated, deep down all the staff know that that is not his true character and he is only behaving this way because of Alzheimer's disease.

Today he is being more agressive than usual. I had a hard time trying to measure his physiological observations and his blood glucose level in the morning. Especially when I prick his finger with the needle, I thought I was going to get punched by him. The doctor was trying to insert a cannula into him and my mentor and I helped to restrain him. But he was too agressive and the situation became too dangerous to proceed on.

He refused his medication and it was feedbacked to the doctor. But the doctor said to mix his medication with water to get him to drink it. I gave no further thoughts about it because I was happy that he drank it all without any problems. However, my mentor then starts asking if it is ethical to trick a vulnerable adult patient into taking his medication that he had refused. The doctor argued that the patient does not have any capacity to think for himself. Is that reason enough to support the stand to trick patients into taking refused medication, or is it really because staff want to make their job easier? I feel troubled..and yet I know there will never be a correct answer to it.

- i just wanted to say ...# ;