Nurse’s Notes

Tales of my nursing career — 1968- 2012

There are patients a nurse never forgets.

Nursing in emergency wards has become dangerous in recent years; patients in disputes with others carry it over into the hallowed halls of health, patients on drugs can become violent, patients not on drugs can become violent and refuse treatment by attacking those trying to help. To get into most ER’s one has to go through a metal scanner.

However, I found danger and an unforgettable patient on a med-surg unit, 3-North of Easton Hospital, as a new RN in 1968. Or rather, danger found me, in the form of a short, thin, wiry African-American man admitted to one of the unit’s 6-bed wards, at the time a ward of medically compromised patients.

My new patient, for I was the unit’s “Charge Nurse” that day, was named Ralph W — . I haven’t forgotten his name but I won’t write it for various reasons:

1. I doubt if Ralph is still alive after 40+ years and if alive, I doubt if he’s on Medium but just to be legally cautious about these things.
2. Like conjuring up the devil; he could be standing behind me
3. My nurse friends who worked in the ER at the time would not let me forget his name. Every time I would see one of them, it would be, “Ralph W— was in asking a bout you…” said with a snicker (and not the…