Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Thanks, Nurse X.

A common method of non-urgent hospital communication between doctors and nurses is the post-it note. I'll open a chart, and find a post-it in the progress notes saying: "Dr.- Can patient take his fish oil pills from home?" or "Dr.- Patient says she also takes Synthroid. Can you please order this?"

So this afternoon on rounds I found the following note in one of my hospital patient's charts. (NOTE- for my non-medical readers, PRN means "when needed")




Hmmm. That depends, Nurse. What are you planning on doing with him?

26 comments:

  1. Was he admitted with chest pain? I would hate to guess how many times that gets checked on med rec forms to continue without anyone paying attention to what they are checking. I can't believe someone would leave a hand written note to try to get you to order it!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maybe she's the HEAD Nurse.

    Now that's a full service hospital.

    Can I get admitted?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bwahahahahaha. I hope he's a good looking patient at least.

    No seriously, why would he need that med in a hospital bed????

    ReplyDelete
  4. Please take this very seriously:

    http://www.innerself.com/Sex_Talk/Sexual_Surrogate.htm .

    The service provided by nurses is often taken for granted and not properly appreciated.

    ReplyDelete
  5. this isn't the same guy from a few weeks ago that had to make sure his "equipment" was still working after his stroke?

    ROFL

    ReplyDelete
  6. Maybe she was just trying to reconcile the meds... (one can hope). Or perhaps he has a tremor and can help himself?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Damn, what kind of hospital are YOU working at?

    ;)

    ReplyDelete
  8. When I worked at the hospital pharmacy, we had a bet going as to when we would see our first Viagra ordered on admission after it was approved. I said 2 weeks after it came to market. I won. My prize was to go and verbally bitch-slap the nurse that wrote out the "continue all meds as at home" order. I also got to verbally abuse the doc who approved the order, though I was much nicer to him. Doctors are delicate creatures, present company excluded.

    ReplyDelete
  9. With my tongue firmly in my cheek, I ask whether or not you are sure that this wasn't for the off label use of a PDE5 inhibitor for anal fissure Rx?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Maybe the he (the patient) was expecting visitors?

    This reminds me of a visit I had to my sister's house. Her 8 year old son was outside shooting hoops and singing Viva Viagra at the top of his lungs..

    ReplyDelete
  11. Keeps them from rolling out of bed.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hmmmm... must have been the same nurse that called a doctor in the middle of the night to ask if they could change an order from rectal tylenol to oral tylenol.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Some of that stuff is 'marketed' to be taken every day, not just 'when'. Maybe the patient (or nurse) was confused about the dosing frequency issue.

    (Probably not--just not thinking.)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Guess she was trying to keep his "spirits" up

    ReplyDelete
  15. Maybe his girlfriend is planning a conjugal visit?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Maybe he was ad-dick-ted to it.

    ReplyDelete
  17. What is the joke behind this? I don't get it...

    ReplyDelete
  18. Moppie- Cialis is used for Erectile Dysfunction, same as Viagra.

    So why would he be taking it in the hospital?...

    ReplyDelete
  19. Thank you Grumpy :)

    I'm not in the medical field.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Moppie,

    I am not in the medical field, either. So just watch what I say and don't say it, and you will be safer.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Dr. Chipper said,

    "For all you know I'm really a Mongolian yak herder and have no medical training at all except in issues regarding the care and feeding of Mongolian yaks"

    He is entirely unqualified to speak about yaks. For example,

    Pure-breeding is the predominant practice with yak. Apart from a scheme involving selection in crossbreds of wild yak with domestic yak in a process of breed development (see Chapter 2), no information has become available on rigorous selection programmes consistently applied for the improvement of the performance of yak in China. However, some selection schemes appear to be under consideration both in China and other countries. The dearth of organized selection schemes is not surprising with an absence of written records of performance and pedigrees and because of the location of yak in harsh environments and remote regions. Herdsmen in some areas, such as those of the Jiulong yak, have a traditional system of selection for replacement bulls. The Jiulong scheme considers the performances of the sires and maternal performance, as well as the physical appearance of the individual. It has to be remembered that the capacity to survive must be one of the chief attributes in the genetic makeup of the yak. This characteristic is likely to be under constant pressure from natural selection.

    Dr. Cheerful's failure to inform you of this important information proves you should not trust him for information on the care and breeding of your yak.

    ReplyDelete
  22. You never know when the the hospital visit is going to get exciting!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Bet that nurse reads this blog. >.<

    ReplyDelete
  24. There is reason to believe there is no labeled indication for the use of Cialis, Viagra, or Levitra in the domesticated yak population based on studies submitted to the FDA. I'm pretty sure about that. Whether any of these drugs affect hair growth, pediatric, nursing, and other special populations, or are even passed into breast milk usually doesn't impact those for whom the drug is indicated is another matter.

    ReplyDelete
  25. "keeps them from rolling out of bed."

    priceless.

    ReplyDelete

So wadda you think?