"Treated poorly"

I arrived for my appointment at 8.45am. It wasn’t till around 9am that my name was shouted from around the corner. I wasn’t entirely sure if it was me they were calling. A lady shouted my name again at which I walked around the corner to find her sitting behind the computer waving a yellow folder at me. I assumed someone would have came into the waiting room to greet me and not just shout for me from another room.

At this point I was told to walk through the door in front of me and go up the stairs to the top floor and wait. Upon entering the long corridor I was slightly confused as to where the stairs were. I didn’t know where I was going. I walked round and round the corner and found them! I wondered up to the floor to find two waiting rooms. I sat and waited in the bigger room assuming I was in the correct place.

10 minutes went by and a nurse came out of her room. She walked straight up to me and took the folder off me with no explanation. Kind of snatched it off me in a way. At this point I was quite stressed about the way I had been treated so far. I was also nervous for my treatment. Another 10 minutes went by and I was finally called in.

All my checks were fine. Unfortunately my blood pressure reading shown to be too high for medical treatment. My reading was around 129/90 with a raised heart rate. The nurse explained to me that my bottom reading/diastolic was far too high and she turned me away for treatment. I was advised to visit my GP to obtain blood pressure tablets. As a 3rd year student nurse I knew that I couldn’t just obtain those type of tablets for a one off reading. I don’t suffer from high blood pressure, I was just anxious and annoyed at the time. The nurse told me I had hypertension but I knew this was wrong.

In the mean time I have been rescheduled another appointment at a different clinic. I have visited my GP to confirm I do not have hypertension and my blood pressure is now reading much better. All I can do is try not to worry as much this time around. Hopefully I get treated better!

The nurse at this clinic left me in the dark and made me feel to have a heart condition which I do not have. Just simply turned me away and said tough. I would have liked some reassurance and to have been made felt comfortable. Maybe then I would have avoided the unnessary stress.

I would never ever treat my patients in this way.