Thursday, August 30, 2012

"I'm standing here in pieces and you're having delusions of grandeur!"

I know nursing school is all about that whole "don't feed into your patients' delusions" thing but sometimes you just gotta say fuck it. Like this morning, for example. My nice hallucinating patient flat out refused to give me any information or cooperate in any way - unless his doctor approved of me first. I tried to reason, I tried to nicely ask permission, and I tried to be firm. This got me nowhere except back to the fact that I had to be approved by the doc. The patient gave me a rundown of the MD's qualifications, where he studied, and why he comes with the patient to all ED visits. I was then asked my qualifications and my favorite movie. Apparently I passed the test with flying colors, because the patient then happily sat down on the stretcher and put out his arm for vitals and bloodwork.

The only problem?

There was no MD to be found in the room. Just me, the patient, and his hallucinations.



Also, I searched for an unreasonably long time to find a video of the title quote. Alas there is very little SW to be found on the youtubez. It's probably George Lucas' fault; you'll have to make do with second best.

3 comments:

Jennifer Edwards said...

Just stopping by to let you know that I've been reading your blog since....well, forever. And, until today I thought your abbreviated pseudonym was "shit-storm trooper." I just now noticed the "r".

Jenny (at Imperfectmommy)

L said...

Haha I've never thought about the possible confusion...but shit-stormtrooper is seriously rather appropriate for my job!

UnsinkableMB said...

Great story... Makes me wish I picked a different specialty in nursing. :)