toastyfrog.net

It’s the end of a 12-hour shift at the geriatric psychiatry unit where I work. I’m standing in the hallway waiting for night shift to come out of report. A very delusional woman is conversing brightly with a very confused gentleman who thinks he’s at the bowling alley (but he can’t find his bowling shoes). [...]

One of the things I love most about my job is that you just never know what is going to happen next. It’s never boring! Here’s just one small example of what I mean.
The setting: The geropsych unit where I work, in “Fred’s” room, where he’s just waked up and I’m helping him dress for [...]

Since I haven’t had much time for blogging lately, I thought I’d share something I wrote for school. This is an excerpt from a paper for one of my nursing classes. I hope you like it.
It was compassion that precipitated my journey toward a career in nursing, and like many of my peers, I had [...]

I had a patient recently who will stay in my memory for many years to come.
He’s not an old man, barely middle-aged. He’s a homeless drunk, “frequent flier” on the hospital unit where I work as an aide. He’s admitted on a regular basis for various injuries and illnesses. Now he’s got cirrhosis and cancer [...]

Back in the early 90s there were these posters and pictures everywhere that looked like a big mess of colored dots or designs, but if you learned to look at them the right way, you could see a three-dimensional image there. It took practice to teach your eyes to focus in this new way. Even [...]

Doing admit vitals on a new patient one night, an elderly man with twinkling eyes, long hair, and a Santa Claus beard, I asked him how tall he was. “Pert’ near tall as you are,” he replied, looking up at me from where he lay on the hospital bed. “I’m six two,” I said. “Is [...]