Absolutely dumbfounded....
I had to pause and replay in my head two incidents that occurred recently while I was in California. The fact that they happened within a span of a week really made me think. At the moment I was so dumbfounded as I couldn't believe my ears. In hindsight it was a good thing; otherwise, some smart-a$$ remark would have come out of my mouth. But in all seriousness, I don't think I could have found the words soon enough. So what am I talking about? Here. Let me explain.
Incident #1: I was at the bank with my mother (thankfully I can say that this is NOT my bank), and speaking to someone at customer service. She was a pretty young lady, who looked like she was in her early 20s, fresh out of college. We were at her desk with the branch manager and as the manager typed something in the computer, she saw my engagement ring. My engagement ring is a sapphire surrounded by smaller diamonds. She proceeded to tell me how pretty my ring was and asked me what the stone was. I said it was a sapphire. Her comment: "Wow. That's so neat how these days they can make blue, pink, and yellow diamonds." I almost burst out laughing and shaking my head. Instead I just politely smiled at her. I wonder what she would have thought if I told her that the earth has been making these colored precious stones for eons. I later told my friend who is a 4th grade teacher. She gave me a pained look and told me that in 4th grade, you learn about rocks and minerals, including precious stones. Well, I guess this young lady at the bank failed to retain that little tidbit from 4th grade.....
Incident #2: This was several days later. I was at the emergency room with my father. My father is on hemodialysis and has a temporary catheter in his upper chest; but he also has a shunt in his upper left arm in preparation for a more permanent catheter there. In any event, he had been in the hallway as the ER had become flooded with trauma patients. But when I was able to visit him, three people moved him back to a room to hook him back up to the blood pressure and vital signs monitor. There was a volunteer, a Navy med tech, and I guess a hospital med tech/nurse assistant? I didn't see the third person's ID tag. So as they proceeded to hook him up to the monitors, they moved to put the blood pressure cuff on the left arm. I told them that he had a shunt in his upper arm so the cuff should go on his right arm. One of them asked me, "What's a shunt?" Okay, if it was the volunteer who said that, maybe I wouldn't have been so dumbfounded. But it was one of the other two, and the Navy med tech didn't offer up any explanation either so my guess was he didn't know either. Personally, my feeling is that if you're working in the ER, you should know what a shunt is or at least hold your tongue if you don't know and make a note to self to find out what it is later. Maybe an average person may not know; I know from my days as a school psychologist and while I couldn't tell you exactly what the function of it is, I know it shouldn't be squeezed or tampered with. These incidents make me wonder what sort of students are graduating from our colleges today.
Yes, I know that two incidents are not representative of the whole population, but it is worrisome if there are more of these people out there. It's also worrisome that the people in these two incidents are in some pretty key places in our society. Let me tell you that I am glad I don't bank at Chase anymore. And I also worry that my dad may end up in the ER again where they won't know what a shunt is unless he actually has a catheter coming out of his arm. Am I being overly critical?
Incident #1: I was at the bank with my mother (thankfully I can say that this is NOT my bank), and speaking to someone at customer service. She was a pretty young lady, who looked like she was in her early 20s, fresh out of college. We were at her desk with the branch manager and as the manager typed something in the computer, she saw my engagement ring. My engagement ring is a sapphire surrounded by smaller diamonds. She proceeded to tell me how pretty my ring was and asked me what the stone was. I said it was a sapphire. Her comment: "Wow. That's so neat how these days they can make blue, pink, and yellow diamonds." I almost burst out laughing and shaking my head. Instead I just politely smiled at her. I wonder what she would have thought if I told her that the earth has been making these colored precious stones for eons. I later told my friend who is a 4th grade teacher. She gave me a pained look and told me that in 4th grade, you learn about rocks and minerals, including precious stones. Well, I guess this young lady at the bank failed to retain that little tidbit from 4th grade.....
Incident #2: This was several days later. I was at the emergency room with my father. My father is on hemodialysis and has a temporary catheter in his upper chest; but he also has a shunt in his upper left arm in preparation for a more permanent catheter there. In any event, he had been in the hallway as the ER had become flooded with trauma patients. But when I was able to visit him, three people moved him back to a room to hook him back up to the blood pressure and vital signs monitor. There was a volunteer, a Navy med tech, and I guess a hospital med tech/nurse assistant? I didn't see the third person's ID tag. So as they proceeded to hook him up to the monitors, they moved to put the blood pressure cuff on the left arm. I told them that he had a shunt in his upper arm so the cuff should go on his right arm. One of them asked me, "What's a shunt?" Okay, if it was the volunteer who said that, maybe I wouldn't have been so dumbfounded. But it was one of the other two, and the Navy med tech didn't offer up any explanation either so my guess was he didn't know either. Personally, my feeling is that if you're working in the ER, you should know what a shunt is or at least hold your tongue if you don't know and make a note to self to find out what it is later. Maybe an average person may not know; I know from my days as a school psychologist and while I couldn't tell you exactly what the function of it is, I know it shouldn't be squeezed or tampered with. These incidents make me wonder what sort of students are graduating from our colleges today.
Yes, I know that two incidents are not representative of the whole population, but it is worrisome if there are more of these people out there. It's also worrisome that the people in these two incidents are in some pretty key places in our society. Let me tell you that I am glad I don't bank at Chase anymore. And I also worry that my dad may end up in the ER again where they won't know what a shunt is unless he actually has a catheter coming out of his arm. Am I being overly critical?
Comments