Answer Happy

Mr. Johnson had been admitted to the hospital after surgery
several hours before the following took place. He was fully awake
and aware, and had engaged in conversation with his caregivers.
Shortly after “shift change,” the nurse and nurse’s aide
assigned to care for Mr. Johnson came in to check his vital signs,
and so forth. The nurse noticed that his “Foley bag” was almost
completely full (A “Foley bag” collects urine when a patient has
been catheterized after certain types of surgery.). She immediately
began to criticize, by name, the work habits of the aide who had
been on duty during the previous shift. The aide with whom she was
working agreed with the criticisms and added examples of her own.
The nurse then said that she would speak to the aide at her first
opportunity and would tell her that, if her work didn’t improve,
she (the nurse) would report the aide to their supervisor.
This whole conversation took place while the two caregivers were
tending to Mr. Johnson. They made no attempt to lower their voices,
so he could not avoid hearing everything that was said. He, of
course, knew who they were talking about because that aide had
introduced herself and participated in caring for him during the
previous shift. As a matter of fact, he had found her to be a very
pleasant person who was diligent in the discharge of her duties
(And she had emptied his bag shortly before the
end of her shift but Mr. Johnson didn’t remember for sure whether
she had or not.).
As before, you need not confine yourselves to these questions.
Let the conversation go where it will as long as it is relevant to
the subject matter of this course.