So here is a medical ethics question for everyone: Let's say you're a home health aide who is a caregiver for a mentally disabled person who needs constant supervision. He happens to be sick enough to need the services of an ER. The end of your shift is nearing. Your replacement hasn't shown up yet. Do you leave or stay?

Kind of a no-brainer right. You're actually required to stay in this situation. Obviously the reason I am talking about this is because it actually happened today. We had a patient that needed to be monitored, but his aide's shift ended and he left, and there was no one there to watch him. I ended up sitting with him for an hour and a half, and by the time I had to leave, there was still no replacement. Granted I didn't mind doing that at all, but it's just bad practice. I didn't know anything about him or his history, he'd get up out of his bed and start wandering around the room and I couldn't get him to respond to me. I felt bad leaving because by the time I left, things were getting hectic, but there was no way I could stay due to a prior commitment.

I did learn something today though. Sometimes in life my common sense doesn't kick in. One of our techs kept on coming in and checking on me, and finally he was like "Don't be sitting over there in the corner where we can't see you. Always have a way out." It made total sense. I didn't know my patient's history at all, or what was "normal" behavior or . Even though I never felt in danger (nor would the staff put me in any situation that would be potentially dangerous for me), he clearly was distressed at times and was talking an awful lot about war and combat and pantomining punching and whatnot. Sitting in the corner of a room that was already in a corner of that part of the ED wasn't the brightest on my part.

Have I mentioned yet that I got a slight promotion at the ED? I can now answer the patient call telephone. DING DING DING. "Hello, how may I help you?" Haha. Eases the tech's loads a lot.


Being on this no sweets challenge has made me very sensitive to sugar intake. I just had some Raisin Bran Crunch (which has 20g of sugar, btw) and now feel sugar comaish/gross. It's been almost five months since I've had any sweets.

Lastly, to close with a nonmedical thing...if you like The Fray, their new album is realllly good. Go check it out. :)