Outpatient Surgery Magazine

In & Out - May 2017 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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Who Are We to Judge Our Patients? you'll never know the depth of their scars, so try a little tenderness. W e judge our patients. You do and so do I. The very people we are supposed to take care of and keep safe, we size them up and tear them down. I do it several times every 12-hour shift. Like the combative woman with a badly broken leg who came into pre-op a couple nights ago. Right away I had her pegged as a drug- abusing victim of spousal abuse. Anyone could see she was having a bad time without her recreational drugs and her mental health meds. I bet a buck that the way her leg was fractured was not from a simple slip and fall, as she'd claimed. The woman grew so incensed when her husband showed up in the pre-op bay that we had to ask him to leave. Surprise, surprise: a mar- riage on the rocks, too. See what I just did? Rightly or wrongly, I'd painted my patient in a most unfavorable light based on a few hasty impressions. We transported her to the OR and induced her as quickly as pos- sible. Right before induction, the circula- tor lightly touched her Behind Closed Doors Paula Watkins, RN, CNOR M a y 2 0 1 7 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 1 0 9

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