The Boerewors Emergency Medicine Chronicles: "You are the weakest link...goodbye!"

Thursday, 3 September 2009

"You are the weakest link...goodbye!"

The patient was a 35-year old woman with a head injury.She was accompanied by her mother.

"So...do you know the name of the Prime Minister?"

Of England?

"Jah...the United Kingdom even...Great Britain perhaps...but I'll settle for England"

Ummh....Thatcher? ....Something Thatcher? ...Thatcher Something?

"Ooooooooooohkay...do you know the name of the Monarch?"

Whats a 'Monarch'?

"Do you know the name of a person who might wear a crown and live in Buckingham Palace?"

Ummhh...No.

Go on, says her mother...ask her what she does for a living!

"Okay...what do you do for a living then?"

I'm a high-school teacher...

Go on, says her mother...ask her what subject she teaches!

"Okay...what subject do you teach?"

Modern History...

*sigh*

She also thought 'hopscotch' was about the devolution of Scotland!

3 comments:

Anonymous4 September 2009 at 15:56
please can i have a teaching session from you on neuro examinations. what with large freckly bovine females doing starjumps to teachers being asked to do hopscotch: i think your clinic would be very exciting. Is this what you lectured on at Wits
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Mal Content4 September 2009 at 17:21
Thanks Anon!! No ...alas I lectured on "the sudden death of children",a psychological approach to managing families and survivors incl staff & tried to run a small clearing desk on issues such as SIDS and miscarriage;on epideimology for Trauma Nursing students;and qualitative and quantitative research issues.I'm actually a REAL nerd and very very boring!!I just meet interesting people.
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Anonymous8 September 2009 at 09:34
Go watch District 9 at the oedeon
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What I do and where I do it

Naturally...naturally... this blog is a complete work of fiction.Of course it is... None of the people (or their relatives) or any apparent colleague or indeed any event mentioned within the blog, exist, or have ever existed. Really..no..really...Honestly..trust me..*right*

If you think that you recognise yourself, -particularly if you are a clinician or an ex-girlfriend-, then you have a narcissistic personality disorder.

However if any part was true then the introduction might read something like this:-
I work as an autonomous Emergency Nurse Practitoner serving a charming English seaside town called Little-Ghetto-on-Sea, on the East coast, closer in fact to Europe than to London.
We treat a wide range of minor illness and injury , with admitting privileges to St Vulva's, the main academic hospital some 20 miles away .
It is apparently one of the UK's most densely populated city's...and fits Littlejohn's discription in the Daily Mail when he says,"most British seaside towns are run-down dole-claimant dormitories,which seem to take a perverse delight in driving people away through a combination of rip-off prices , tatty boarding houses and disgusting food and draconian parking regimes" . It often feels as if it is the setting for 'Little Britian' which most foreign readers will know is more social commentary than cutting-edge comedy.Indeed most of the male patients are typically shaven headed pierced,inked,dirty-fingered,dull eyed ,baseball-cap wearing, unemployed smokers with prodigious drinking skills. The women have a limited vocabularly, ranging from "innit" to "my (human) rights" with not much else inbetween.Invariably they have several children from different consorts (love that word!) and walk through the town talking on their cell phones and ignoring their children.There are few vegetarians and even fewer graduates.

DISCLAIMER

This site is for entertainment purposes only.

Any patient interactions or cases that are posted here are not based upon any single person ,living or dead ;or any specific event.

Conversations in quotes and remarks that appear to be quoted verbatim are not necessairly true. All patient details are changed to make identifying them impossible, far exceeding the minimum standards for de-identification of patient information.

However , occasionally , ECG strips ,photographs,or x-ray images that are of clinical interest are posted and are subject to that particular patient having given me written permission for the image to be published;and no original NHS images or materials are used,removed or uploaded from any of the hospitals in which I work.

Under no circumstances should any reader assume or think that any nursing or medical advice is being dispensed.

No nurse/patient relationship,- or indeed any theraputic relationship of any kind-,will be established by you reading and/or commenting upon this blog.