The other day, a nurse at Florida State University in Tallahassee responded to an alarm in a hospital room where a patient named Stan D. Ardman lay gravely ill. Ardman's blood pressure had dropped precipitously, and when the nurse came in, Ardman wheezed and said, "I'm very nauseous and dizzy ... Having trouble breathing."
"O.K.," the nurse responded. "I'm Thomas. I'll be taking care of you." (Thomas is a pseudonym for a nurse in his mid-20s.) Then, in a tone of uncertainty, Thomas said under his breath, "Nauseous and...
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