“Reading the Room”, or, Situational Awareness

So, TINS©, TIWFDASL© as an ED RN. At this point in time, the ED employing me (which was Middling Freestanding ED (MFSED) was an entertainment subsidiary of Enormous Hospital System With Delusions Of Grandeur (EHSWDoG).

My subsidiary hospital had the system’s psych ward upstairs, and therefore we appeared to be the psych intake for the three or four county area at which we were the center. So, this one night, an enormous dude, dressed in a three piece suit, perfectly buttoned etc, and BACKWARDS appeared. There were no police accompanying him (so I assume he was not a police psych hold). For some reason, Mr. backwards Suit had decided that he needed to go for a stroll.

As I became aware of the excitement, I noticed a cloud of nurses, as well as several security, negotiating with him to lay back down for assessment, and so forth. Somebody had given him a pen (for Ghawd only knows what reason), and he was appearing to become more excited as time passed. I noticed him only paying attention to the officers, with his (pen holding) hand behind him. He was standing in a doorway from one hallway to another, and I was down the one hall to his right. I strode past him, as if going down that hallway, and, as I passed, I snatched the pen from his hands, and continued down the hallway, as if that were the only reason for my passage.

Mr. Backwards Suit soon de-escalated, was assessed, and (unsurprisingly) admitted for psych evaluation. And, nobody else gave him a pen.

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