My observation takes place in an Emergency Room in a rural county hospital. The ER is a thiry-by-forty room with white walls and a dusty rose counter. Beneath the counter there are several cabinets containinf instruments such as wire cutters, bone cutter, skin hooks, knife handles, and needle holders. There are also two bookcases containing various kits and trays such as IV trays, lab trays, cricothyrotomy kit, emergency delivery kit, pacemakers, and chest tubes. In the middle of the room there is gurney covered with a white sheet and a pillow. Surrounding the gurney are various machines such as IV infusion system, oxygen saturation and pulse rate monitor, vital signs monitor and a crash cart for people whoes heart has stopped.
All of these life-saving machines make many people nervous. And if given the oppurtunity, these people will fidget constantly, from running their hands through their hair to rapping their IV tubes around their fingers. Fidgeting is a helpful stress reliever for many patients. Fidgeting oftentimes helps take their mind off from why they are there in the first place. For example, one patient, holding an insurance card in his hand, constantly turned his card in his hand until he ripped it. Men's nervous stances often include folding their arms, then unfolding their arms, putting them in their pockets only to refold them again. Men when speaking to a female nurse, talk softly and even make a joke once in a while. But upon a male doctor entering the room, their voice deepens and sounds almost threatening.
Female patients often cross their legs when they're nervous, then uncross them only to repeat the sequence over and over again. Females tned to always be replacing something, for instance, a woman put her purse in her lap, then placed it beside her on the gurney, then moved the purse to the end of the gurney away from her only to place then purse in her lap again. She repeated this sequence nearly twenty times.
Fathers, when bringing a chold to the emergency room, tend to be overly concerned, ...