"Fixin' to die"

WKShadowNP, DNP, APRN · Dec 24, 2016

The appropriateness of calling patients by nicknames is completely different than a medical professional using a typical regional verb "fixing". (If she had said "about to die", would you have the same problem?) In the former case, the patient may feel patronized being referred to by a pet name, and it's important that patients feel they are respected. In the latter case, no patients were offended by her word choice- just you because you don't understand that the phrase is not slang or improper, but widely-utilized and accepted English.

I've had to work on that myself because I am guilty. But no patient in my memory complained of my usage of endearments. I get it from them too.

OrganizedChaos, LVN · Dec 24, 2016

"Is this really the hill you're fixing to die on?"
FTFY

OMG. :laugh: You win the Internet today!

1056chris · Dec 24, 2016

I moved to Texas and I hear fixin to do stuff in a lot of local folk here. It just means getting ready to. It does not mean any to make fun of. They are serious when they say that. That nurse was fixen to send him off to a hospital because his condition was bad enough to warrant it. I just hope it wasn't over yonder cause you never know how far that could be.

Tenebrae, BSN, RN · Dec 25, 2016

The folks in Oklahoma who said it were regional and FAR from unintelligent or ignorant. I was from the north and never gave it a thought. Sheesh people.

I'm from a different country and I didnt give it a thought.

People use language differently, its a cultural thing. Personally I'd be more concerned if the RN had written it off as stomach flu and failed to follow through on her intuitiion

Tenebrae, BSN, RN · Dec 25, 2016

I love the word askew.

I also love the word 'winding'

and the phase '3 sheets to the wind'

Tenebrae, BSN, RN · Dec 25, 2016

I must askew a question.

More like "I had the sense that something was askew" or similar meaning to "He seemed fixin to die"

kakamegamama · Dec 25, 2016

I love the word askew.

I need to use "askew" more frequently....as in, "My diet went askew today as I enjoyed every single piece of dessert I ate as part of Christmas brunch" (Did I use that properly?)

kakamegamama · Dec 25, 2016

I moved to Texas and I hear fixin to do stuff in a lot of local folk here. It just means getting ready to. It does not mean any to make fun of. They are serious when they say that. That nurse was fixen to send him off to a hospital because his condition was bad enough to warrant it. I just hope it wasn't over yonder cause you never know how far that could be.

Over yonder, if you're fixin' to go there, is a fur piece down the road. If you ain't careful, you might find yourself up Duck Creek without a paddle trying to get there!

WKShadowNP, DNP, APRN · Dec 26, 2016

More like "I had the sense that something was askew" or similar meaning to "He seemed fixin to die"

Yes.

I was making a joke. :)

Cheyenne RN,BSHS · Dec 26, 2016

Totally regional here. In rural Georgia many speak like this. I am in metro Atlanta now but it is mostly northern transplants (like me) and we do not talk like that.

I am an Army brat raised all over the earth from Alaska to Germany and then to Texas and now in the deep rural south. Atlanta has an International accent. I have practiced nursing for 30 plus years and live life in the deep rural south.

I never thought about all the euphemisms we use in every conversation till I went up to Ohio for a few years. My euphemisms, animal facsimiles, and verbal dialect did make people perceive me as stupid. That impression didn't last long tho.Once they watched me code a few folk and stand up to the doctors they learned quickly I may talk funny but I knew my S**t,

I worked very hard to talk and understand the dialect. If you are not born and raised in the deep south, then you are an outsider not to be trusted. My saving grace was that all my daddy's people were from the little town I worked in. I worked the ICU but I also did home care with the same patients when they went home. I loved it and had a superb relationship with my ICU staff and doctors.

I lived in this rural area over 30 plus years and saying ""fixing to" in an interview is just fine by me. That nurse will be talking to laypeople and others in the same communities. They don't want to be talked down to or in such a way they are made to feel stupid.

MunoRN, RN · Dec 26, 2016

I don't think anybody is arguing that it's a normal colloquialism in the south, and I don't know that it's worth getting irate about, but it was certainly a missed opportunity to educate the public that school nurses are actually able to formulate an assessment of a situation that is beyond what just anybody could come up with. "Fixin to die", while accurate in colloquial terms, isn't particularly all that different from how non-nursing folks could have described the situation.

WKShadowNP, DNP, APRN · Dec 26, 2016

Maybe someone can do a video remix on youtube...like the bronchitis video or hide your wife one.