Today was one of those days that everything seemed blurry.
I woke up at 6 am and I thought 'Oh my, I feel as if I went to sleep only a minute ago'. I was so tired and somehow 'confused' that I actually took an earlier bus! I should probably be happy about that though...
So anyway...
I am currently doing my aged care rotation and medical students usually are responsible of doing MMSEs on every patient that gets admitted.
So, after lunch, I went to see my first patient and conducted an MMSE on her. She actually turned out to be more oriented that I was!
Me: What day of the week is it?
Patient: Friday
Me: Well, it's actually Thrusday
Patient: Oh really?
Me: Yes
It was only when I was writing her score down that I realized that it was Friday and not Thursday! I was so embarrassed...I quickly apologized to the patient and confirmed that she was correct.
She laughed and said 'I think you need one of those tests too'
It has been a terrible error on my part and could have led to:
1. A wrong MMSE score - meaning wrong assessment of the patient
2. Get the patient confused
In this case, it was fortunate that the patient was well oriented to person, place and time and had no cognitive deficit. If it was someone with cognition impairment, it could have led to more confusion!
Morale of the story: Be focused on what ever you do and always check the date and time before doing an MMSE.
