One of our patients came off sedation and was extubated.
A few hours later, the doctor came by to assess the patient’s mental status. He asked,
“How old are you, Mr. Smith?”
The patient replied, “I was born in 1924.”
It wasn’t really the answer the doc was looking for, so he asked again,
“But how old are you?”
And the patient looked up at the doctor and said,
“You do the math.”
Heh.
I am late in linking to Change of Shift this week, so there it is. Kim hosted this week and she has some questions at the end for nurse bloggers. Go weigh in!
I am Gina. I have been an Intensive Care nurse for 14 years. This blog is about my experiences as a nurse, and the experiences of others in the healthcare system - patients, nurses, doctors, paramedics. We all have stories!
Comments
This is one of my pet hates, due largely to my awful maths. I used to ask patients for the DOB first, then ask them their age; after a couple of older patients did this to me, I now do it the other way around. As your colleague found, sometimes they’re just going to bite you in the ass anyway.
added by Kal on 01.25.09 6:51 am | Permalink
That is awesome. I wonder.. did the Doc answer? How long did it take them??
Heh heh.
added by Strong One on 01.25.09 6:27 pm | Permalink
@StrongOne No…. he didn’t answer… just went on to the next question.
added by geena on 01.26.09 12:31 am | Permalink
My grandmother believed doctors were so well educated they should be able to guess her symptoms!
Onehealthpro
added by Onehealthpro on 01.26.09 1:38 pm | Permalink
Ah, yes, the orientation questions…
My favorites are, “Do you know where you are right now?”
“Yes, don’t you?”
and the other one, working night shift…
“Can you tell me what day it is?”
“Sure, it’s Friday”
“No, I’m sorry, its actually Thursday.. oh, wait, its 2am… I guess it is Friday, sorry”
Makes them wonder which one is the confused one…
added by disappearingjohn on 02.02.09 5:10 pm | Permalink
[...] Gina witnesses a post-op patient give a doctor a math [...]
added by Better Health » Heard Around The Blogosphere: 2.22.09 on 02.22.09 12:20 pm | Permalink
Too funny!! I know my grandmother has a hard time calculating her age and she is completely lucid.
added by Brandi on 11.16.10 2:40 pm | Permalink
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