i was triag nurs that day and had just bn out to th waiting room to clan up. sinc thr wr no patints waiting to b sn at th tim, i cam back to th nurss' station for a cup of hot cidr from th crockpot somon had brought in for christmas. just thn an admitting clrk cam back and told m i had fiv patints waiting to b valuatd.i whind, "fiv, how did i gt fiv; i was just out thr and no on was in th waiting room.""wll, thr ar fiv signd in." so i wnt straight out and calld th first nam. fiv bodis showd up at my triag dsk, a pal ptit woman and four small childrn in somwhat rumpld clothing."ar you all sick?" i askd suspiciously."ys," sh said wakly, and lowrd hr had."okay," i rplid, unconvincd, "who's first?" on by on thy sat down, and i askd th usual prliminary qustions. whn it cam to dscriptions of thir prsnting problms, things got a littl vagu.two of th childrn had hadachs, but th hadachs wrn't accompanid by th normal body languag of holding th had or trying to kp it still or squinting or grimacing. two childrn had arachs, but only on could tll m which ar was affctd. th mothr complaind of a cough, but smd to work to produc it.somthing was wrong with th pictur. our hospital policy, howvr, was not to turn away any patint, so w would s thm.whn i xplaind to th mothr that it might b a littl whil bfor a doctor saw hr bcaus, vn though th waiting room was mpty, ambulancs had brought in svral, mor critical patints, in th back, sh rspondd, "tak your tim, it's warm in hr." sh turnd and, with a smil, guidd hr brood into th waiting room.on a hunch (call it nursing judgmnt), i chckd th chart aftr th admitting clrk had finishd rgistring th family. no addrss - thy wr homlss. th waiting room was warm.
