EHOR

I raised my first EHOR (Electronic Hospital Occurrence Report) after 13 months and 14 days on the job. A patient had an unwitnessed fall while I was on night duty with my preceptee. No one knew exactly what happened. Patient claimed she merely lowered herself to the floor very slowly from the side of the bed (both side rails were up!) and glided on the floor to the spot where she was found (next to her cardiac table). She claimed she was 'making a trip to the hospital to remove her colle's cast'. And that was 0240hr in the morning. Sigh...

While I'm relieved she's unhurt (i.e. no pain or signs and symptoms of fracture), subconsciously I fear it may be too early to tell. My preceptee, on the other hand, was close to tears for fear she may fail her posting because patient safety is a major component of her competency assessment.

Anyway, I can only pray and ask God for His hands to cover the nenek (a term for grandma in the Malay language) and keep her safe. In fact, God had already extended His mighty hands over the nenek (and me!) when the doctor on call refuses to sign her case as a fall. He wrote in the case notes "Impression: unlikely fall". Such grace and mercy from the Lord! Hence, I believe my preceptee will not be penalized for this case.

Nonetheless, both of us learned the importance of careful assessment of our seemingly not so confused patients, as well as passing on crucial information to our colleagues during hand-offs if our patients had been observed to be restless during our shift (because this valuable piece of information was not conveyed to us when we took over from the previous shift). I'm praying now for a peaceful third and last night shift tonight.