Nurse Cheryl from Woodland Terrace called me just before five o’clock my time. She said she had a report from the psychologist who visited mom this morning which recommended that mom be administered Risperdal.
I interrupted because I thought that mom was supposed to have seen Dr. Oh, a psychiatrist this morning, and that only psychiatrists (and not psychologists) were able to prescribe drugs. Nurse Cheryl said that “she” was definitely a psychologist and not a psychiatrist, and that she — Nurse Cheryl — had just called Dr. Peele and he had approved administering .025 of Risperdal. I asked her if she knew the name of the psychologist and she said that she couldn’t read it on the chart. I asked how she knew it was a woman (because Nurse Cheryl kept referring to the psychologist using feminine pronouns) and she said that it was because the morning nurse had been referring to the psychologist as a “she” when she (the morning nurse) told her (Nurse Cheryl) about the psychologist visiting.
Nurse Cheryl said that she wasn’t going to add the prescription to mom’s chart without talking to me first, and I said I appreciated that, and that I really wanted to talk to the doctor who recommended it first. She said I should call tomorrow and ask to talk to Jessica, the “unit manager of the West wing”. Nurse Cheryl said that Jessica could probably get me the doctor’s name and more information. I thanked her and said I really would prefer to at the very least get the doctor’s name before agreeing to give mom more drugs.
Nurse Cheryl said that was okay and that she would let Dr. Peele know.
The entire call lasted about five minutes.