一个有教育性的玩笑

刚完成了我的weekend shift。
老天算对我不薄，我的周末并没有疯狂的工作量。
发生了一件至今仍令我深思的玩笑。

On our way from ED to the ward,
registrar: how's your day?
me: It's been good. I am just clearing the jobs on the white board. I feel obliged to clear those jobs and I don't like them piling up.
registar: You are a perfectionist, like me.
me: yea...it just feels good.

Walked past said whiteboard, no jobs...*feel awesome*

Sat down and played with my iPhone.

Oh, I need to write up the blood slip for patient X for tomorrow. So I walked out.
Caught a glimpse of said white board.

"Bed 1: failed supp. Pls do manual disimpaction." (i.e. clear the stools from the backpassage using a finger)

It's 9.15pm, and I have nothing else to do and just waiting to handover at 9.30pm.

So I told the reg what was on the board and getting quite excited to do my second manual disimpaction throughout my internship so far.

My reg cracked a joke:
Make sure you order an abdo xray after you do it.
Me: Why? Is that a must? (No one told me before...)
reg: look at your bony finger, it can cause a perforation...No, I am just kidding. You don't need an xray.

Ok...we had a laugh and I was ready to go.

Reg continued to say:
Are you really going to do that?
Me: yea...this will be my last job for tonight *happy* then i can handover. *walking away*
Reg: are you serious? you really going to do it? *walked with me towards the white board and RUB THE JOB AWAY*
Me: *confused* what?

Reg: I wrote that on the board! It's a joke!
Me: *feel a bit embarrased*

Then I had a 5 minutes talk from the reg about not doing what's written on the board blindly and the importance of escalating treatment.

Reg: Nurses dont always know how to escalate treatment but you do. That was a glycerine suppository. You can escalate to an enema.

有一种恍然大悟的感觉，
像被点通任督二脉。
是我们东方人的教育方式的问题吗？
我们崇尚听话，顺从，勤劳。
就是少了那么一点的变通思维。
长大后踏入社会，
受人钱财，替人消灾，
不懂变通，就会让自己觉得工作吃不消。

如果那天没有被开这个玩笑，
或许我还得继续撞墙个三五年才会学到这个道理吧！