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Gut Instincts: Are they real?



Intuition is something that everyone has, but not everyone recognizes. Many people base their theories on science and facts, and do not consider intuition or gut instincts to be factual. However, scientific data would prove this wrong. In multiple experiments among volunteers, gut instincts and intuitions proved to be accurate, and essential. When you hear someone say, “I just knew that was going to happen”, they may very well be right. That may have felt something was not going to work and it would fail, but they may not feel comfortable speaking up and sounding like a know-it-all.

Intuition and Nursing

Bethany was a nurse and had been working five years in hospital. She had a patient that was admitted and was extremely sick. Doctors tried to determine the origin of her illness, however were unable to. The patient had been hospitalized for five weeks with no apparent answers. Family members were pressuring doctors and nurses to make a determination, to let them know what was wrong. The patient herself constantly complained that an accurate diagnosis and not been made. It was understandable that after this length of time some answers could not be provided, as one doctor put it this is a very unusual case. Multiple tests were being run scans were being ordered and outside physicians were being consulted, yet to no avail. 


Bethany worked with this patient day after day, and begins to notice a slight pattern. Bethany started to wonder if there was any way the patient could be inducing medical problems to herself. Although the patient did not fit the criteria for the average Munchausen patient, there was just something that made Bethany question the legitimacy of her illness and injuries. Bethany shared her concerns with Dr. who immediately discounted her theory. Betsy let her idea go and could continue to treat the patient and provide the best care possible. Then one day is Bethany entered the patient’s room, she saw the patient taking a drink, actually a sip from a small vial of medicine.
Knowing nothing of this type should be accessible to the patient, Bethany approached the patient questioning what she was doing. The patient claimed she kept a small amount of sugar water in the vial for when she really wanted something sweet but did not want to add the calories of an actual desert. Bethany wanted to believe the patient, however, her intuition told her otherwise. So the next day on doctors' rounds Bethany advised the Doctor in private what she had observed. Although the doctor hesitated doing so he ran additional tests and ordered more labs. It turned out that once again the patient’s insulin levels were skyrocketing with no apparent reason.
In light of what Bethany reported the doctor ordered more extensive lab work and it was in fact determined that there was synthetic insulin in the patient’s body. A psychiatric evaluation was ordered, and the patient finally admitted that in fact she was self-medicating in order to induce an illness. Her bag revealed a stash of insulin vials that she obtained from a pharmacy in another country. There were other items and other medications that she also obtained illegally and was using whatever she felt necessary to induce illness. Although the patient needed medical help it was of the psychiatric nature and not physical. The patient was stabilized and received proper psychiatric treatment and was released with no more complications. This was Bethany’s gut instinct that told her things were not as they seemed. She followed through with her gut instinct, and in this case it paid off.

Using your intuition and gut instinct with patients must be balanced with facts, data, and reality. No doctor, coworker, or patient for that matter wants to hear that you just have a feeling about something. There needs to be some backing for your theory.  It's fine to share an opinion or thought, however it does need to have some validity to it.


Intuition and gut instincts can play a huge part in your own safety. Say you are leaving work at midnight, and due to parking limitations, you park down the street instead of in the parking lot. So as you get ready to leave work, a strong feeling comes over you that you may not feel safe walking to your vehicle. In this case, that feeling has facts and data backing it. Walking alone at midnight in an isolated area is simply not safe in many instances. Request security to escort you to your vehicle.  Intuition and the ability to have those instincts are actually part of our genetic makeup and should not be ignored, but rather appreciated. So the next time someone says trust your gut instincts, you can answer, “I do”.


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