…well maybe not bad news. Maybe more of an “ewwww” factor.
I went to listen to a patient’s chest early last night (just after starting my shift at 7pm), put my stethoscope into my ears and yowled in pain (again….). I (again) had lost an ear piece, and so had put the unprotected steel tube into my ear canal.
Last time it happened, I prevailed on one of the nurses to give me a disposable scope, one used for examining “infectious” patients-those with tb or who are so immunosuppressed that we avoid using our own, possibly contaminated scopes on them. I cut off one of the plastic earpieces, put in in place of the missing one, and thinking ahead, cut off the other and placed it in the trapper-keeper I carry when doing rounds. Just in case I ever needed one….
….which I did last night. I looked around the er bed at the time, checking to see if the earpiece had dropped nearby, but I found nothing.
I finished work, went home. Slept. Got up. Drove to work…..
After receiving check out from the day shift people, I walked out into the hall. A “caution, wet floor” sign was there, where someone had….presumably….recently mopped. On the floor next to the sign lay my earpiece. Twenty four hours, and, at least if one is to believe the sign, after sweeping and mopping the area.
…..or maybe not. Ewwww
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