Accidental Confession at Work!

Aww…the situations I get myself into at work…
Tonight one of my pts was an elderly woman with severe dementia who was being worked up for a liver transplant…(I was surprised that they were going to do a liver transplant on a woman in her 80’s but hey good for her). She had been very uncooperative for the day shift and had even gone so far as to punch the tech and absolutely did not want anyone coming near her…especially if they had the intention of touching her.
Of course I was a little apprehensive about caring for this patient. But what could I do, so I walked into the room and introduced myself as Alicia, her nurse for the night. “Why do I need a nurse?” she asked, with her eyebrows furrowed and quite frustrated. I responded by saying, “Well honey, it’s because you are in the hospital, and I’m here to take care of you.”
Um…this may just have happened to not be the best answer, because at this statement her eyes got wide and just about popped out of her head. Her eyes were now set in a dead glare…man if looks could kill…I would surely be dead. “You think this is the hospital!!!!!!???? Girl, this is my home, you don’t know what you are talking about?”
I looked around the room…a little unsure of what to do but knew I had a decision to make. I could argue with her….wait the correct way to say that is to…reorient her to her surroundings (hahaha), which of course is the textbook correct thing to do, or I could make it an easier night for both of us…so of course I choose the easy way! Surprise, surprise lol.
“Oh, I’m so sorry dear, I get terribly confused sometimes…Yes, we are at your house. Your daughter asked me to come by to check on you…she must really love you!” The lady got this big grin on her face and replied, “Why yes, my mother does love me.”
“Well you have a good mother. Is it okay if I listen to you breathe?” At this point she was willing to do anything I asked and within a few minutes we had finished the assessment with no problems at all. As I finished, she asked “How many blocks do you cover?” “Um…blocks?...um Eight?”
“You cover EIGHT whole blocks…baby doll you must be crazy!!!”
Now I was the one who was confused, and had no idea what we had just talked about. The next time I went into her room, she asked me the same question, this time my new answer was six blocks. This was still too high a number and apparently I was still crazy lol. When I returned with her medication, the question was repeated a third time. I thought for a minute and said “Four. How many do you cover?” Here I thought I was socially interacting with the pt and developing a therapeutic relationship when all of a sudden I hear, “Girl, I don’t get paid for working corners!”
Wait!!! “But I do???!!!” What in the world did I just tell my pt I do for a living?!!! All I could do was stand there with my jaw about to hit the floor…and of course a nice little cute blush was beginning to take over my face.
A few hours later the question was repeated. “I don’t get paid for that” I replied too afraid to say anything else at this point. “That’s good” was her quiet reply.
Hmm…maybe those textbook correct ways to handle situations are actually the best. Not only did I accidentally make a “confession” to my pt about my secret life outside of the hospital…the other nurses I was working with were of course in the hallway and overheard the confession also…man however am I going to live this down now? Oh the joys of being a RN.