So, today is April Fool's Day, for those of you who don't know.
Yesterday, my coworkers and I brainstormed a bit to plan something special for today, and the nightshift nurse executed the plan. It was all based on the shift hand-off report.
She reported that one of our dementia patients (Person 4) had been lost during the night. The nurse manager and Dr. had been called, but they didn't answer. The police had finally been called in to search for him, and one of the dogs finally found him sleeping peacefully under a computer table.
The second part of the report was that one of our patients (Person 3) who had only just started making a few small sounds recently had sung a few lines from an old Coke commercial.
Finally, she reported that we were getting a new admission even though our beds were full, because the main hospital that we get patients from had learned that we were discharging a patient (Person 1) today (which had been the plan up until Wednesday when the Dr. changed his mind). They said that since there weren't any rooms for him, they had set up a bed in the restorative room - the look on the restorative nurse's face was priceless.
There were some other great responses as well, but I think the best responses were from the Dr. We usually don't play report for Dr., but we played the last part for him. When he heard about being called regarding the missing patient, he immediately stood up, took his cell phone from his pocket to scroll through and see if he had missed a call.
Then, when he heard we were getting a new admission, he stopped the tape, looked at me and asked "what's his name and social security number? I'm going to need to put in orders?" I fumbled a little bit and told him I didn't know. I hadn't thought to get a name because I was so surprised to hear about the admission and the other nurse said, "Dr., he don't have a bed for the patient" and we turned the tape back on so that he could hear the rest of the story. Before getting to the end, he turned the tape off again. "Well, we're going to have to discharge Person 1. Get Person 2 on the phone and see if she can arrange tranportation for him to go back home."
And then, the kicker - right as he is talking about sending Person 1 home, Person 1 walks by, and he asks, "It looks like you may be going home today after all. How do you feel about that?" At thins point, we had to stop Dr., because we didn't want Person 1 getting his hopes up. We told them both it was an April Fool's joke.
Finally, a few minutes later, Dr. asks, "So, the part about Person 3 singing was an April Fool's joke, too?" "Yes, Dr. and so was the story about Person 4 getting lost."
Yesterday, my coworkers and I brainstormed a bit to plan something special for today, and the nightshift nurse executed the plan. It was all based on the shift hand-off report.
She reported that one of our dementia patients (Person 4) had been lost during the night. The nurse manager and Dr. had been called, but they didn't answer. The police had finally been called in to search for him, and one of the dogs finally found him sleeping peacefully under a computer table.
The second part of the report was that one of our patients (Person 3) who had only just started making a few small sounds recently had sung a few lines from an old Coke commercial.
Finally, she reported that we were getting a new admission even though our beds were full, because the main hospital that we get patients from had learned that we were discharging a patient (Person 1) today (which had been the plan up until Wednesday when the Dr. changed his mind). They said that since there weren't any rooms for him, they had set up a bed in the restorative room - the look on the restorative nurse's face was priceless.
There were some other great responses as well, but I think the best responses were from the Dr. We usually don't play report for Dr., but we played the last part for him. When he heard about being called regarding the missing patient, he immediately stood up, took his cell phone from his pocket to scroll through and see if he had missed a call.
Then, when he heard we were getting a new admission, he stopped the tape, looked at me and asked "what's his name and social security number? I'm going to need to put in orders?" I fumbled a little bit and told him I didn't know. I hadn't thought to get a name because I was so surprised to hear about the admission and the other nurse said, "Dr., he don't have a bed for the patient" and we turned the tape back on so that he could hear the rest of the story. Before getting to the end, he turned the tape off again. "Well, we're going to have to discharge Person 1. Get Person 2 on the phone and see if she can arrange tranportation for him to go back home."
And then, the kicker - right as he is talking about sending Person 1 home, Person 1 walks by, and he asks, "It looks like you may be going home today after all. How do you feel about that?" At thins point, we had to stop Dr., because we didn't want Person 1 getting his hopes up. We told them both it was an April Fool's joke.
Finally, a few minutes later, Dr. asks, "So, the part about Person 3 singing was an April Fool's joke, too?" "Yes, Dr. and so was the story about Person 4 getting lost."
