Station - Instructions for candidate
You are an intern on the surgical ward of a metropolitan public hospital.
Kim Doan, a 61-year-old long-haul truck driver, is on the surgical ward the evening before a laparotomy booked for tomorrow morning for a bowel obstruction that has not settled. The nursing staff have mentioned a patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) pump with morphine for after the operation, and the patient has asked for it to be explained tonight.
Your tasks are to:
- Explain to the patient how the patient-controlled analgesia pump works and how to use it.
- Counsel the patient on its side effects.
- You do NOT need to examine the patient, and you do not need to take a full history.
- You do not need to prescribe or document in this station.
- The observation chart and the admission bloods are available from the examiner if you ask.
This is a 10-minute station, with 2 minutes of reading time.