Monday, February 28, 2011

Technicalities

A little bit of backstory: We have quite a few foreign exchange nurses working in our hospital. Most are either Pacific Islander or Indian, and a few from other scattered places. All speak English well, usually in addition to two or three other languages. Having just taken a Spanish for Nursing class, and still feeling Spanishly Dumb, I really, really wish I was bilingual. I've got the greatest respect for those who can hold multiple languages in their head and not have it leak out of their ears. That being said, there are occasionally some language snafus which we all get a giggle out of.

Such as tonight.

One of the exchange nurses went into the patient room to check a pulse ox. He was placing the pulse ox finger thingy on the patient, while explaining what he was doing. "I'm just going to check your pulse ox, to see if you're SOB."

The patient looks at him all bewildered like, and goes, "I mean I'm having a little trouble breathing, but I'm not a son of a bitch!"

The poor nurse came back out and was just as bewildered as the patient...until we all busted out laughing and explained the idiom that is "You SOB!!"

Lesson learned. And after the lesson was over, the nurse did smile too. Because let's face it...that junk is funny. Political correctness be damned.

2 comments:

Frazzled-Razzle-RN said...

Lol!

Nicole said...

LOL Ah man. Your blogs are too hilarious. I know they are real but you really know how to bring the nursing experiences to life.