A few more:
What the doctor says: "Can you point with one finger to where your pain is?"
What the patient hears: "Can you wave your hand around in a huge circle to tell me where your pain is?"
What the doctor says: "What is your pain level on a scale of 1 to 10?"
What the patient hears: "Can you review your pain level with every possible activity you can think of on a scale of 1 to 20."
What the doctor says: "What medications are you taking?"
What the patient hears: "Can you describe the color and size of no more than half of the pills you're taking?"
What the doctor says: "Do you have any other medical problems?"
What the patient hears: "Can you give me a detailed history of how all your other medical problems were diagnosed? And if you have any major medical problems, like diabetes, I don't need to know about those."
"Can you do something about my constipation?"
ReplyDelete^-- Point with one finger to where it hurts --^
ReplyDelete=P
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7171051/establishing-the-agenda
ReplyDeleteHad four sciatica/miagrane patients today....so dead on, it's not funny.
ReplyDeleteMy attending would get so frustrated, he'd say, "Point with one finger... and you can't move that finger!"
ReplyDeleteI like the patients whose numeric scale of 1 to 10 includes "kind of ouch, you know, but sometimes not like when it's the other way." Or "a million."
ReplyDeleteI think I'm having a PTSD flashback in response to your post.
ReplyDeleteThese are all SO TRUE. Working in an ER wears on your patience very quickly. My favorite would be when a patient is getting triaged:
ReplyDeleteNurse: "How would you rate your pain right now?"
Patient (calmly): 10
...
Nurse: "OK I can't write 10 because you're not crying."
That seems to elicit shock, awe and confusion.
Or, patient: "Well no I don't know my meds because my wife has the list. No, she doesn't know I'm here and she's probably not coming. You ought to call her."
YES.
ReplyDeleteMy triage days I learned really quick to ask the right quest. Instead of "why are you here tonight?" it was "what one event made you leave the comfort of home from your lay z boy to come here?"
ReplyDelete