Published
does anyone else find themselves looking in the obits for former patients? my family thinks that i am totally bizarre, please confirm that this is yet another "nursing feature!"
Originally posted by nrw350that had to stink seeing that your patient was dead. How did you take it?
Nick
Sucked big time. I had discharged him that day. Walked him out to his car with his Holter monitor. He hugged me and his wife joked that he was getting a big thrill hugging such a young girl.
It was apparently a very big thrill.
Heather
I have been on a holter monitor before, and hated every minute of it. Turned out to have been a bad ekg reading that freaked my doctor out and made him want to put me on prozac immediately. Long story made short, I have not been back to that doctor since.
Nick
PS: If he was anything like me, hugging a very careing nurse is a big thrill because it is sort of a chance for me to repay the nurse's kindness.
I'm Irish, so it's not a slur, Nick, but from what I understand from my relatives, when the Irish first became a major population group in the area Irish wakes were one of the big social events. Women went to mourn and talk and help the widow--they were usually held in the home-- and the men to drink and talk and eat and socialize. If you read "The Last Hurrah" by Edwin O'Connor he gives a great scenario of what part Irish wakes played in the politics during James Michael Curley's reign. (They sounded like mini-caucuses to me!)
Growing up, at my house, when the Boston Post came each morning, Dad would grab the real sport's pages and Mom the Obit's which she always called the "Irish Sports Pages." What she found there usually dictated her social calendar for the next few days. I don't know where the phrase originated, but have heard other Irish-American people use it.
You are not alone! I work on an Oncology/ Med-Surg/ Palliative Care Unit...we always look for patients from our floor. We have a bulletin board on which we post obits...sadly, this very morning, we posted two obits of two well known patients of ours.
The weirdest habit of mine is that I'm always assessing the veins of people I know for possible IV starts! My husband's veins are a favorite...I can get a 16 gauge in those babies!
momrn50
75 Posts
I read obits first thing, first to see if any of my residents have passed away and then to make sure my name isn't in there.