Documented Behaviour

I’ve made a decision to remove all quotation marks from my clinical notes. These are no longer ‘reported behaviours’ or ‘alleged anomalies.’ They are observed, repeated, and documented actions. When a patient refuses to respond to painful stimuli but reacts instantly to the sound of a heartbeat, that is a fact, not a theory. I am done hedging my language to satisfy the hospital’s legal department. If we are the only ones left to record this, we owe it to the future to be blunt. Euphemisms are for people who think they’re going home at the end of the shift.