Does this johnnie make me look fat?
I’m from Boston – or Bawston if you will. We talk a little funny over there. When I first came out west, I needed an interpreter every time I opened my mouth. It went a little beyond the accent. I remember walking patients to a room and saying something like “Okay, you can put your clothes on the chair. Take your pants off. Put the johnnie on with the opening in the back and lie down on the stretcher. I’ll be back in a few minutes”. I’d leave the room and return five minutes later to patients having done nothing but don a blank deer in the headlights stare, or were in all stages of undress and sitting on what ever they assumed was a stretcher. Who knew out west johnnie was the guy down the street and not a gown, pants could be loosely translated as – God forbid – underwear, and a stretcher was either what they laid you on as you journeyed to the great beyond or it had something to do with shoes that were two sizes too small.
We may feel that we’re giving our patient’s all the information that they need, but we really need to make certain they fully understand that information before we move on.
And yes, that johnnie makes everybody look fat……………….