Friday, November 17, 2006

Standards of Care

Milady has a staph infection and is in the hospital. She ran me off at about 11:00 last night. She is scheduled for surgery this morning to clean and drain the site and I am heading for the hospital as soon as I finish my coffee. The surgery is not life-threatening, any more than any other surgery and we are confident of a quick recovery. I'll probably bring her home Saturday morning.

Milday is a registered nurse who deals daily with staph infections and she diagnosed and predicted this hospitalization as soon as the problem began. When admitted, she took charge of her own health care. She is a nursing supervisor at a long-term care hospital that treats the Developmentally Disabled and her unit recently passed an audit on nursing standards with flying colors. She is a subject-matter expert on nursing standards. She is normally a kind, gentle person who cares deeply about the most vulnerable of our citizens.

She defends the nursing profession against all comers, but believes that the best way to promote the profession is to insist on the highest standards of professional care. She will bring smoke and scunion down upon the nurse who gets sloppy within her domain. I observed her last night as I played the role of dutiful husband. She was friendly and open with her nurses, but was watching them like a hawk watches a mouse. I know from personal experience that she can transition from Sweetness-and-Light to Avenging Angel within the span of a heartbeat. It is not a pretty sight, nor one for the faint of heart. Those are her standards, by God, and they will be maintained for the good of the patient and the profession.

Her surgeon, thankfully, is a doctor with whom she had had a long and congenial professional relationship. They trust each other completely and she is in good hands with him. He will practice his craft this morning with absolute confidence and mend her completely.

It's time for me to put on my shoes and head for the hospital.

3 comments:

oyster said...

Sorry to hear about the staph infection. Our daughter got one last year, and we had to spend almost a week in the hospital with her. I hope your wife's recovery is as quick as this.

Anonymous said...

Pawpaw, keep us posted on this one. . . .

Rivrdog said...

Gve her my best, PawPaw, and rest assured she will be out of there in the bare minimum time. It's simple: the staff doesn't like to have an expert to work on, because they KNOW that everything that they do is measured against her high standards.

Question for her: if that procedure was done under a General, why didn't they put in a Central Line?