Really, how can you remember?

[sunnycalifRN]

This happens to me frequently in ICU. A patient and their family will come into the unit, sometimes bearing candy or cookies (yum!), and they come up to me and say, "Hi Sunny, I'm going home today and I wanted to thank you for your care".

I'm like . . . you're very welcome . . . . uh . . . . . who are you??? They're dressed in street clothes, clean-shaven, hair nicely combed . . . I've got no idea who they are!!! But, then, before he can respond, a colleague will run up to him and say, "Hi Mr. So-and-so".

I think I need to start taking Aricept!! Early Alzheimer's!!!

[AgentBeast, MSN, RN]

It's part of having a Y chromosome dude. We're all terrible with names and faces.

[OutlawNurse86, BSN, RN]

Yeah, I was at a gas station the other day buying a coke and the gal behind the counter didn't even charge me for it. She said "You took such good care of my husband 4 months ago"...I was like "um...ok...thanks..." and then I asked the obligatory "How's he doing?" I felt bad cause I couldn't recognize her.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

I don't recognize people the next day, but sometimes I'll recognize the person with the patient because they are in street clothes both times. I know some nurses that can recite the patient and family history back 20 years.

[Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN]

I get this all the time. There I'll be, running errands in the mall, and someone comes up and says "Oh, there's Dad's favourite nurse". So there I stand, frantically trying to remember who "Dad" was. Did he go home? Did he go to a nursing home? Did he die? (because all they things could of occured). Usually I just stand there, smile and try not to ask "So how is Dad" only to be told - "Um - you were with him when he died". I just say things like "thank you" and "how nice of you to remember me". I am terrible at faces and names. Unfortunately for me, due to a disfiguring disease, I have a face that makes me stand out from other people so people remember me.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

I have this problem all the time. People will walk up to me in the store or in town and say, "Hi, Marla, it's good to see you again!" and I have no idea whatsoever where I've met them or how they know who I am until they say something like "You took such good care of me a couple of years ago," etc. I usually have to picture them in a patient gown to figure out who they are.....luckily, that usually works. :)

[opensesame]

Right there with ya, Sunny. Pass the Aricept around...

[OCNRN63, RN]

Happens to me all the time. I feel bad about it, because these people have been through chemo, so you'd think I should remember them.

[ahicks]

Cut yourself some slack. Everyone looks a tad different with a tube down their throat. LOL!

[catshowlady]

Send some of that Aricept my way, too, please. I cannot remember faces. Give me a name, and I'm likely to recite a health history and course of ICU stay, but I just can't remember the face to go with the name.

:paw:

[tyvin, BSN, RN]

My concern is I live in a fairly small town with 1 inpatient psych unit (12 bed unit) and I recognize the patients out in the city all the time. My problem is they also recognize and remember my name and when they approach me in public I don't know quite how to respond. With the more severe mental illness case I will act like I don't see them and disappear fast. It's because they were having exacerbation's of their mental illness is why they were being treated by me so I don't know if they are just being polite by saying hi or if they're being sincere in saying hi.

[agldragonRN]

it's part of having a y chromosome dude. we're all terrible with names and faces.

i concur!!