The Context of Patients' Lives.

ABSTRACT

I try to touch base with the clinic nurses each day before patients and physicians (in that order) start arriving and the usual busyness of the day takes over. A recent early morning conversation centered on one nurse's frustration with the spouse of a man who had been treated in another city and who was now under the care of a physician at our clinic. The woman had been calling the nurse repeatedly since her husband had returned home after the procedure. He was having complications, and she wanted something to be done about this immediately. The nurse was receiving text and email messages from the physician, who was also being contacted by the man's spouse, and his frustration was doubling up the effect on the nurse. The physician had agreed to provide follow-up care for this man and, frankly, I was somewhat surprised at the fuss this was creating.