Couldn't agree more, Russ. Today, while performing at a high-end Alzheimer facility there was a young girl walking through the audience taking the blood pressure of the patients. She didn't have a clue what she was doing, didn't position the blood pressure cuff correctly, often over-inflated the cuff, which was painful to the patients, then wrote down the information on a flow sheet. The only thing she did correctly was to write the readings down on the flow sheet. At the end of my performance I politely took her aside and told her that the method she used to take blood pressure would produce false highs. She immediately snapped back "I know how to properly take blood pressure." When I tried to explain why the cuff was not properly positioned she refused to listen. Yep, she knew everything there was to know about blood pressure measurements and if you didn't believe her, TOUGH $HIT! She was gonna' do it her way. What an idiot. A college educated idiot--but an idiot no less. On the way home I got to thinking about the situation there and wondered if anyone at the entire facility really know anything about blood pressure measuring techniques. I called the facility director and after a brief conversation she said maybe it was time for the staff to get some up-to-date, in-house training.

I almost lost my cool with that young gal. Glad I didn't, though. She just really pissed me off with that "I know everything attitude" and who is this old fart think he is by telling ME what to do.

Guess I'm getting a bit more feisty and less tolerant in my declining years. I'm a lousy patient to boot!

Gary