Watchdog:
I had a male patient in his 50's that was hospitalized while traveling through town on business. He did not have any family or friends in the area, so he was quite lonely. His 2, yes, 2 Iphones were his best friends. He was constantly emailing, texting, chatting, etc...if he wasn't charging them back up. The distraction of all his technology was a little bit irritating at first, and then I realized that he really needed that connection to "his world." His Iphones were his "watchdogs."
Overapologizing:
When I was inserting a catheter into a female patient of mine, I was having a rather had go of it. She was not an "ideal" candidate for a newby to try and put a catheter into....so while I am trying to do my procedure, I was constantly apologizing for how long it was taking, etc...looking back, I am sure she lost all confidence in my abilities due to my overapologizing. I am glad the book brought up this subject.
Rock the boat:
Recently, I was caring for a client that had been in a MVA and suffered several fractures from her ribs to her femur. She was very pleasant that morning, and I could not tell a thing was upsetting her. During her assessment, when I asked her what she would rate her pain on the verbal scale, she said "10." She then proceeded to tell me she had asked for her pain medication the previous evening at 9pm and had never received it. Not knowing if this were true or not, I went to her current nurse on duty to report my findings. She said she would get to it when she did scheduled medications. I then told her that the client stated she had not received any pain meds the previous night, and I asked the nurse to check and see if the night shift nurse had administered them to her. The night shift nurse had not given her any pain medication all night.
So, thankfully, the nurse went and pulled her medication right away instead of waiting an hour or so to get around to it.
My patient was very grateful.