Misunderstanding
A nurse walks into the room and greets her patient, who is busy typing on his laptop in no apparent distress. He looks up at her briefly but says nothing and continues his work.
"So tell me what brings you in to see us," says the nurse, a bit perturbed by his rudeness. He completely ignores her and continues to type without saying a word.
She leaves the room in a huff and tells her colleagues about the jerk in room 2, only to learn that he is a deaf-mute patient who communicates by typing. When she returned, she found he had finished typing his chief complaint and a brief history.
"So tell me what brings you in to see us," says the nurse, a bit perturbed by his rudeness. He completely ignores her and continues to type without saying a word.
She leaves the room in a huff and tells her colleagues about the jerk in room 2, only to learn that he is a deaf-mute patient who communicates by typing. When she returned, she found he had finished typing his chief complaint and a brief history.
Labels: nurses, patients, perception
posted by scalpel at 2:17 AM
10 Comments:
I wish all patients were like that
I suspect he was still a rude person- he could very easily have made a hand motion, or typed an intermediate sentence explaining what was going on. They both made assumptions about each other.
now that's a EHR I'd like too see implemented
There is a nurse who got NO report on her patient before going to see him.
-whitecap nurse
Hopefully the Press Ganey was unsuccessfully obtained via phone call.
"Doh!!"
hehe ,, (pauses ) OOPSY !!! LOL Stacy
I'd say most nurses are overworked, underpaid and under-appreciated by patients and doctors alike.
This is another classic example of a professional in a public service type of job that the general public seems to hold to a higher standard than they hold their self.
Many folks forget that nurses are human too. The nurse was probably just a little over tired that day and a little burned out. I'm sure most of us would have made the same mistake.
I think the patient could have made some sort of gesture to acknowledge the nurse and give the nurse an idea of the situation.
I worked with patients in a medical profession in my younger days. I actually started college in Pre-Med. I remember that quite a few patients with physical and / or mental disabilities were somewhat uppity and thought the rest of the world owed them something.
I'd say in this case both parties share the blame. I hope both learned from it.
Joe
To the above poster:
wow.
just... wow.
We do not know if the patient did anything to indicate what he was doing.
The nurse may have overlooked or misunderstood any such gesture.
The patient may have figured that there was no point in gesturing and wanted to complete his documentation first.
There is a lot we do not know about this, but it is an amusing way of pointing out how we often misinterpret things, especially when we are overworked.
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