A Nursing Study: Chocolate Selection in the Emergency Department

It's that time of year!

The breakroom table groans under the myriad of edible gifts sent in to the ER by the local doctors, the majority of them chocolate!

Whitman's is the best box of chocolates because it has a map on the lid of what is in each section. No guessing. Nothing worse than biting into a "carmel" only to find out it's a "creme". Blech.



Of course, I'd still eat the chocolate around the creme.

Nurses have ingenious ways of figuring out what is inside a piece of candy. One nurse I worked with took the surgical route; I once discovered a full box of See's candy with every piece perfectly sawed in half. Another colleague approached the problem laparoscopically; she took a 14 gauge needle and poked a hole in the bottom of each piece.

As a professional nurse, I believe in using the nursing process when choosing my selection:

• Assessment
  
• Shape - round, square, rectangular
• Firmness
  
• feel through the paper cup to maintain sterility
• soft, hard, slight give
• Texture - bumpy or smooth top
• Swirly on top - big or small
• Color - dark or milk chocolate

• Plan
• Eat now or later
• Solitary or multiple bites
• Place selections in mailbox so no one else gets them
• Consider milk as adjunct

• Intervention
• Eat a small bite as a test dose
• Take a second bite to confirm diagnosis

• Evaluation
• Satisfactory: consume entire specimen
• Unsatisfactory: commence ejection into garbage and begin process with another specimen

I have pretty good success with this system.

I will say that, professionally speaking, nothing good ever comes out of a round, smooth, soft dark chocolate piece of candy that doesn't have a swirly on the top. However.... I have been known to consume them when faced with a shortage of cocoa-based candy.

I don't believe I'll be facing that situation for a few more weeks, at least.