Red-Green Color-Blind Post

[Zee_RN, BSN, RN]

Hey, it won't let me reply to the guy who asked about being red-green color-blind...It keeps timing out. I can post on other threads but it won't let me answer that guy! So I had to start all over again with a new post. Hopefully he will see it here (I'm assuming it's a "he" as most "she's" are not color-blind).

To the poster:

As I'm sure you know, most of your responses will have to come from the male nurses out there. My mother is color blind and it is very unusual for a woman (1 in 100 men; 1 in 100,000 women are color blind). But having been raised with a very color-blind mother, I am always conscious of things that are color-coded.

You will have to keep a special eye out on the labeling of drug products. Sometimes vials of medications are color coded: a different color indicates a different concentration. It is written on the vial too--be sure to read and re-read the label (as all nurses should do anyway). In critical care, the monitors display in different colors--the cardiac rhythm in green, the arterial blood pressure in red, the pulmonary artery pressure in blue...they are also labeled and in unvarying order on the screen so you would have to depend on labeling and order, not color. When driving, for instance, my mom knows the red light is on top, the green light is on the bottom...order counts since she can't differentiate red from green.

I don't think it will be a big hindrance for you...there are other ways things are marked besides in color. As far as redness around a wound, I can't say for sure...but I'm sure you can see the color changes around the edges you just won't see them as "red"--and since there is usually no **green** color nearby you don't have to differentiate the red tissue from the green....ewwww!! No guarantee on that, though, *grin*...(thinking of pseudomonas....ewwwww!).