"When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold on to them. They are the life boats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely illusive. So the question becomes, or should have been all a long... What would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What life boat would you grab on to? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write?"


Friday, September 14, 2012

Funny Thought for the Day

So, to check orientation of all of our patients when doing our assessments, we have to ask each patient three main questions: Their name, where they are, and what time/date it is. Well, with my younger middle aged patient with something simple like Cellulitis or an earache, I usually skip over this and assume, from my normal conversational interactions with that patient, that they know who they are, where they are and what day it is. Just a hunch.


So it then becomes a matter of where do you draw the line? Is there an AGE where I should assess or not assess for orientation? Is there a diagnosis?

I really think it just depends, its different for every patient. Granted, the older the patient, the more likely I am to check for orientation right off the bat. Some people fool you pretty easily, they are having a full fledged normal conversation with you and you think they are oriented, until you ask them what month it is and they say its February when really its August. And its 1982.

So the other night, I got a new patient under my care. She was elderly, but with her husband. She seemed to be pretty with it but on the verge pretty forgetful. So I decided to definitely check for assessment. This is how it went down:


Me: "This is going to sound pretty silly, but I have to ask, Can you tell me your name?"

Patient: " Mrs. IKnow MyName"

Me: "Okay good, Can you tell me what day it is?"

Patient: "It was just Thursday, but now its Friday."

Me: Okay good. Can you tell me where you are?


Patient:   "Yes."


Me:  ...........


Patients Husband:  "Dearest, I think she wants you to tell her where you are."

Patient: Oh! I thought you just wanted to know if I knew where I was. I know where I am.

Me:    ...........


Patient: ....... I'm in ThisLovely Hospital........ *looks around at everyone*, Right?




*sigh*


~ WNB



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the title of this post. I am also a writer in a nurses body. Cute blog post.

Unknown said...

FYI: I was the person who wrote the above comment, but ended up deleting my entire blog due to technical difficulties. I have startd all over. The reason why I am telling you this is because I enjoy your blog and have subscribed as a follower. Your posts are inspirational.

A Writer in a Nurse's Body said...

Well thank you very much!!!!! Thanks for reading :-) <3 WNB