I went into report one morning ready to have another great day at work. During report, the nurse coming off shift informed me that one of my patients was both blind and deaf, and that the nursing staff was having a hard time communicating with the her. I figured I would somehow find a way to break this communication barrier. The patient happened to be a diabetic, so when it was time to do an Accucheck, I couldn't figure out how to let the patient know I was about to prick their finger. So I took my machine and placed it in the patient's hand. Then I took the lancet and placed it in the patient's hand. The patient obviously knew what I was about to do because she stuck out a finger and let me perform the stick. For the rest of the day, I was very pleased that I had been able to communicate with her, and even bragged a little to my coworkers. The next day I came in looking forward to yet another great day at work. As I am walking down to the nurses station, I notice the deaf/blind patient sitting in the dining room READING A BOOK! Then she looked up at me and SMILED! As you can imagine I was very weirded out by this and found the whole situation rather startling. When I brought it up to the nurse coming off shift, she informed me that the patient wasn't blind, but LEGALLY blind. I felt really stupid the rest of the day. Let this be a lesson for all to read the chart COMPLETELY and don't always trust the nurse coming off shift to give you an accurate report.
Name: Katelyn
State: Florida
Name: Katelyn
State: Florida
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