Stereotypes

Here's something most people don't want to hear.  Stereotypes exist for a reason.  It's a human behavior that allows us to look at large amounts of information in a simple way and easily categorize things.  Or at least I think that's what one of my college professors taught me.  We all do it on varying levels.  Most of them allow us to more easily go about our lives.  Some are detrimental to the ones doing it and the ones on the receiving end.

Soooo, when you walk into the room of your 90+ year old ICU patient, what do you do?  I tend to assume that they're hard of hearing, maybe a little demented, and not generally all that interactive.  I don't mean to, but my experience tells me that this is a pretty safe assumption most of the time.  When I speak normally I usually get, "What?" as a response if I get any at all.

And sometimes those same folks are Ivy league educated PhD's who are wondering why you're yelling in their direction.  It happens.  :)