On the first point: a sleep study is a series of moving targets. There isn't any one, specific thing that triggers getting you up, usually. I have a cascading list of goals as the night progresses. Also, this stuff isn't set out in lab protocols, so you kind of have to learn from experience. What do you get yelled at about? What do older, experienced techs think? What kind of questions do you get asked in the morning the you could have answered if you'd done something different. And that sucks for the tech, and it also sucks for you since your tech may or may not have a clear set of goals, and may or may not be able to clearly articulate them. I find it very difficult to describe my moving goal posts to someone who has no grounding in sleep. To explain "at least two sleep cycles" just by itself can be challenging, depending on what the patient already knows.
The other really tricky part of my job is providing the correct amount of information. Some people want to know a lot, some people don't want to know anything, and not overwhelming the latter can be important to their comfort. Sometimes people know what they want and will tell you. Sometimes, they won't.
I completely agree with you about doctors, but part of the doctor's problem is that insurance companies dramatically limit the amount of time they can spend with patients. And the problem with listening to patients is that they are often full of irrelevant detail and useless theories. If what you've got are fifteen minutes, you need to drill down quickly, which means cutting off their weird-assed theories at the knees. But this eliminates huge amounts of useful information that you could get, if only you had time. And, unfortunately, a tech is not a good substitution for a doctor. I have more time, but do not have the training to notice when the long, painful story about how the patient can't sleep because of a particular trauma has a telling detail. I can listen to the story, but won't be able to see the telling detail.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
Re: sleep is interesting
Date: 2018-05-28 09:24 pm (UTC)The other really tricky part of my job is providing the correct amount of information. Some people want to know a lot, some people don't want to know anything, and not overwhelming the latter can be important to their comfort. Sometimes people know what they want and will tell you. Sometimes, they won't.
I completely agree with you about doctors, but part of the doctor's problem is that insurance companies dramatically limit the amount of time they can spend with patients. And the problem with listening to patients is that they are often full of irrelevant detail and useless theories. If what you've got are fifteen minutes, you need to drill down quickly, which means cutting off their weird-assed theories at the knees. But this eliminates huge amounts of useful information that you could get, if only you had time. And, unfortunately, a tech is not a good substitution for a doctor. I have more time, but do not have the training to notice when the long, painful story about how the patient can't sleep because of a particular trauma has a telling detail. I can listen to the story, but won't be able to see the telling detail.