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The arithmetic of gestalt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 May 2018

Stephanie D. VandenBerg
Stephanie D. VandenBerg*
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
*
vandenberg.stephanie@gmail.com

Extract

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It has been said that we are the sum of all we have met. As a learner in the emergency department, I have a lot of meeting to do. Take Sandy, a 35-year-old single mother.

Her triage note reads that she came to the hospital after losing her breath bathing her 3-year-old daughter.

If you had read it.

If you had asked her, she would have told you that she’s been sweating through her clothing during the day, causing her colleagues in the university administrative office to stare awkwardly. She says no to your list of Pulmonary Embolism Rule-Out Criteria (PERC) criteria queries, uses a copper intrauterine device (IUD) as birth control (it was the cheapest option), and is healthy, as far as she knows.

If you had asked her.

If you had listened, she would have described a difficult social situation that had left her the sole provider for her young daughter. She walks the local drag once or twice a month, selling sex to whomever will buy as her current job does not pay enough to make rent every 30 days.

Keywords

clinical decision makinggestalthumanities
Type
Humour and Humanity • Humour et Humanité
Information
Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , May 2014 , pp. 257 - 258
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians 2014

References

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