Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Glimpse into Healthcare

For all those of you not involved in health care, your best bet for getting a glimpse of the good, the bad, and (oh yes) the ugly is to spent just a few hours, no wait, even just a few minutes in an ER....Here is my advice:

ER Etiquette

Don't hurt yourself.
You can't hurt a dead man.
Never yell at the nurses
Don't get excited about blood loss-unless it's your own.
Don't hit patients or doctors-unless necessary.
SEX isn't everything, but it's a hell-of-a-long-way ahead of anything that's second.
The pain will go away when it stops hurting.
A strawberry by any other name would be a heart with acne.
Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
If nothing has gone wrong, you've obviously don't understand the situation.
He who turns to run away must first sign out AMA.
If you can keep your head among all this confusion, you obviously don't understand the situation.
Uncommon manifestations of common diseases are more common than are uncommon diseases.
Death is a severe stage of shock, or shock is a pause in the act of dying.
In medicine, always remember never to say always and never.
Everyone gets treated exactly the same in here ---until he pisses you off.
The pit is a mixture of can do, can't do, and why the hell not!
To be right is only half the battle; to convince the patient is more difficult.

*Found circulating at San Francisco

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