So I had a strange week, though it was several weeks ago now (I'm a little behind in blog posting). My hallway on the SNF floor has four 'semi-private' rooms. I would say that my 'average pt' is a 78 y.o. female with a condition causing general weakness and mild dementia. However, I had a set of weeks where it was all... men.
We rarely get ANY men on our SNF floor (staff or pts). And in this situation we had 9! My hallway had Mr. H after his hip fracture; Mr. R who was terribly deconditioned and had very little shoulder flexion either side; a man receiving IV antibiotics; Mr. L w/ confusion after UTI; Mr. N with mild dementia and THR; and Mr. Z w/ advanced dementia. It was interesting working with an all-male caseload for the first time ever... these guys had some good stories and some were very willing to work hard. I think in general they did have some apprehension about ADLs, probably more than my 'average pt' but I try to be respectful of such things.
I spent a lot of time working with both Mr. H and Mr. R, and can happily say that they improved greatly and are at home. The others, unfortunately, did not have the same result. I guess basically it worked out as it does when I have an all femme hallway, some worked hard, some wouldn't work at all, and some couldn't overcome their deficits in the time we had together. Hopefully they'll all continue to improve.
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