Do you ever forget your patient's names?

Nurses General Nursing

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Last night a doc asked me how mr so/and/so was doing. For the life of me, the name did not ring a bell. I felt so stupid. He looked at me and said, "well, if you manage to find him tonight, then maybe you can take care of him". Now this doc is also MY family doc and is usually nice to me. But he caught me off guard, I had only been on shift for about an hour. I am sooooo bad with names. I usually refer to them as a room number, and yes I know that is so impersonal. Anyone else?

Specializes in Leadership, Psych, HomeCare, Amb. Care.

I have an excellent memory, can recount whole conversations, yet occasionally blank out on a name.

I'm sure that every clinician has had this happen a time or two.

I even called a Dr around midnight or so & had to convince him that a particular patient was his. Gave his name, age, where he came from... "Oh, Yeah..."

Don't sweat it.

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Infusion, peds, informatics.

forget a patient's name????

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[color=#a0522d]all the freakin' time.

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[color=#a0522d]it is the one situation where i feel blessed to be working in the south, where "sir" or "ma'am" will get you through. (as long as you can figure out who is a "sir" and who is a "ma'am; very bad to get them confused :imbar )

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[color=#a0522d](i honestly can't figure out why "love" and "darling" are "terms of affection" deemed to be on the "bad list," but "sir" and "ma'am," which are just as anonymous, are readily acceptable; no matter, i can adapt.)

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[color=#a0522d]wth the number of patient's we are expected to see in a day, it is no wonder that we can't keep track of their names. nor should we be expected to -- that is what arm bands are for. if we were working in ltc, then i would expect to get to know the patients and their names, along with their likes/dislikes/needs. some days, when working er, i see over 30 patients. please. even if we were that good, the opportunity for mistakes is just too great. i'd rather accept that i'm not good with names, and ask/check arm band each time.

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