Title: Discussion 9
Course: HCP 0796 Patient Care Technician > Section: Module 6

Cultural Competence and Patient Care

Read Chapter 5, The Practicum Experience before answering the questions below. Remember that with each scenario, you are not a staff member, you are a student on clinical rotations.

1. You are performing clinical at the Health Department locally. One of the patients that comes in is a friend of your mother. She's at the health department to find out if she is pregnant because she has been experiencing a variety of symptoms lately. The urine pregnancy test revealed inconclusive so you were ordered to draw a blood test. After she leaves, the lab calls to report the results which are negative. You have attempted to call her for her results but have been unable to reach her and it is Friday afternoon. That weekend you see her in the mall with her family. What should you do? If she asks for the results, should you disclose them since you were trying to contact her previously to give her the results? Why or why not?

2. You realize that your neighbor is a patient at your practicum site. You see her chart and are wondering why she has looked exceptionally tired the last few months. The chart is right there in your view and no one is watching. You are assisting a variety of PCT's and one of them has her for a patient. What should you do and why?

3. You are short on money due to being in school and having limited time to work. Your child has been sick with bilateral ear infections and is prescribed antibiotics. There is a room at your practicum site that has samples of medications and have been asked to retrieve medication from this room to give to patients several times. You see the samples of your child's antibiotics on the shelf. These samples are given to the facility by drug representatives and do no cost anything for the facility. They are also free for the patients. How are you going to handle this situation?

4. While on practicum, you notice that another CNA has left work 15 minutes early every day for the past week that you have been there. Two employees who suspect this behavior but have not witnessed it themselves approach you to see if you have seen any of this behavior. You report that you did, not knowing that they had been suspecting it but couldn't prove it. They are now asking you to report it to the facility supervisor. What are you going to do and why? What are the consequences of the action for you either way?

5. While escorting a patient back to their room in the ER from radiology, the patient's wife asks you if her husbands blood work results are back yet. You know that the results are back and they indicate that he has a rare leukemia as the doctor on call showed you as a teaching experience. You tell the wife that you cannot disclose this information but they both begin to beg you. They state that they have been at the ER all day with no answers and the anxiety is more than they can take. You know that they must be tired as you have been in the ER since 6:45am and it is now 6:30pm and they have been there just as long. You explain that they will have to talk with the doctor regarding any test results but they continue begging and pleading with the point that the ER is full of patients and the physician will not be able to come back into their room for a while yet. How do you handle this situation?