One of the behavior assessments on we do every shift in psych has a box which reads, "Preoccupation with... rituals". A ritual is defined as "...solemn ceremony consisting of a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order".
During med pass the other evening a patient I learned the ritual of a patient on the geriatric psych unit when she said,
"The other nurses give me a damp paper towel to wipe the coating off of my levetiracetam because I'm allergic to the coating."
Then, " The other nurses break open my gabapentin and sprinkle it on applesauce."
And finally, as she bites into her colace gel tab and sucks out the juice, "Do you have something sweet to drink because that tastes bitter?!"
TY again. I like how you can soften (appropriately) some stuffy topics. (Kinda like your Johnny Fever).
I'm impressed that I remembered it was Maslow! You know, nsg students sometimes moan & groan about some of the silly things we all HAD TO LEARN - like what was the use of learning the Krebs Cycle or that carbon has only 4 electrons in its outer ring or that thermodynamic 1st Law. And Kubler-Ross, my favorite.
My mother dumps her pills out of her preprepared (by her) med cup at home. I said "Don't do that in the hospital, you'll drive the nurses crazy" and she said "that's why I do it." Rituals for different reasons I guess.
Not a patient ritual but a ritual of a nurse I used to work with. She was a very strange lady, heart of gold though, I only worked briefly with her before she retired. Anyway, every time she would pull up an IV med when she was finished she'd lick the top of the vial, didn't matter if it was solu-medrol, lasix, or morphine. It was very... odd.
That is truly one of the strangest things I've ever heard! I would worry people would get suspicious about substance abuse if I openly licked a vial of morphine after drawing it up.
My mother dumps her pills out of her preprepared (by her) med cup at home. I said "Don't do that in the hospital, you'll drive the nurses crazy" and she said "that's why I do it." Rituals for different reasons I guess.
I KNOW I was doing it at the rehab/NH I was at. But I was really trying to catch med errors, which sadly were occurring quite freq.
amoLucia
7,736 Posts
TY again. I like how you can soften (appropriately) some stuffy topics. (Kinda like your Johnny Fever).
I'm impressed that I remembered it was Maslow! You know, nsg students sometimes moan & groan about some of the silly things we all HAD TO LEARN - like what was the use of learning the Krebs Cycle or that carbon has only 4 electrons in its outer ring or that thermodynamic 1st Law. And Kubler-Ross, my favorite.
Some things are timeless, not to be forgotten!