Third Time’s a Charm

I wasn’t too sure what to expect today in clinical. Today was supposed to be a “Community Integration” session; however, it happened to be the third Tuesday of the month a Patient’s Government meeting was held instead. The Pt's are allowed to manage their activities and leisure space as they wish, so once a month they hold parliamentary procedures to discuss what will happen during the next month. Sounds exciting, right? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz I suppose it was good to see how the patients are able to interact with each other, but I was really hoping to see more today. I had to really work to try and stay alert during this meeting. I have to admit that after today I’ll be glad to move to a more acute setting in the main hospital.

After the government meeting I was able to interact with the patients before lunch…

Patient No. 1: An old man in a wheelchair.
DV: “Hello, my name is DV. I’m a student nurse. Would you mind if I sat down and spoke with you for a few minutes.”
Patient No. 1: “I DON’T WANT TO BE BOTHERED RIGHT NOW!”
DV: Welllllll okay then, maybe later.
Okay, so maybe he wasn’t the best person to approach since he was quite the complainer during the previous meeting. I really thought he would have an interesting story. Strike one for the student nurse.

Patient No. 2: Middle aged African American man.
DV: “Hello, my name is DV. I’m a student nurse. Would it be alright for me to sit and talk with you for a while?”
Patient No. 2: Yes.
DV: Great. (Reaches over to grab a chair)
Patient No. 2: “I gotta go get my gla%$%^&**&^&*^%$#$” (Stands up and runs away, never to be seen again.)
DV: (Perplexed) Um, okay.
DV: (To Student Nurse #2 who saw the whole thing) “Didn’t he just say it was okay if I sat down with him?”
Nurse #2: “Yes.”
DV: “Did…um…did he just run away from me as fast as he could?”
Nurse #2: “Um, yes.”
DV: “WTF?”
Nurse #2: “Well, DV, you are kind of intimidating.” (Laughs)
DV: (Sarcastically) “Oh, right….”
Strike two for the student nurse.

Patient No. 3: Middle Aged African American male (A different guy of course.)
DV: “Hello, my name is DV. I’m a student nurse. Would it be alright for me to sit and talk with you for a while?”
Patient No. 3: “You’re sitting right here next to me. Might as well.”
DV: Don’t run away okay.
Patient No. 3: Um, okay. You alright kid?
CONVERSATION CONTINUES AD LIBITUM.

Okay, so I embellished the third patient a little, but the first two were dead on. FYI, this does not make me want to walk up to crazy people and just start talking to them. Must…keep…trying….

DV