Waiting Room

Three calls today. A woman with chest pain on movement, a man with pnemonia, and a man who fell and broke his hip. The man with pnemonia was in the waiting room of his doctor's office. He had a sat of 84, a respiratory rate of 40, a heart rate of 172, a BP of 88/40 and he was confused and too weak to stand. Only his wife sat with him. As we were getting him to a gown and on our stretcher, a doctor poked his head out and said, "He has a right lower lobe pnemonia, take him down to the hospital. They know he's coming." Okay, doc. I've had a similar experience at this same office before. He calls 911, then parks the patient out in the waiting room, and goes about his business.

I was without my preceptee today, and I enjoyed just doing the calls by myself. I need to write a longer account of my feeling about precepting and how they have changed over the years. I am definately becoming more hardnosed.