Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Hood Nurse: Thoughtful Answers

I'm in triage the other night when a nice younger gal checks in for some kind of strep/allergy/viral illness hybrid- not life threatening but definitely super unpleasant. I get her vitals and history and ask her the dreaded pain scale questions.
She thinks for a while, then rates her throat pain a 9 and her headache a 7. Then, she stops herself, thinks for another little while, and says,"wait, I guess like, people who get shot come here, and probably their pain really is a ten. So I guess mine isn't anything like that, so that number should be like, way lower. Sorry."
I could have hugged her. Instead I just smiled and told her I always thought that scale was really stupid anyway, and walked her back to a room in fast track. At this point in my ER journey, this sort of perspective is almost just as refreshing as taking care of someone with an actual emergency.

3 comments:

sydni said...

Wow, that's great. I'm an ER Tech and I know the eye-rolling feeling of some "10 out of 10"s.

Lisa said...

10 out of 10 for me is a modified radical mastectomy with TRAM flap reconstruction. Believe me, my 10 is a way different 10 than the chick coming in with menstrual cramps. That scale is worthless. The person who first started using it should have been fired on the spot. How did that thing become so universal?

Aesop said...

This was invented by the same mom that decided every kid in little league should get a trophy.

I will only say that I hope she goes to the Special Hell.