Where's My Patient??

For the past week or so, I've had a patient who... wanders. This fella has a bit of dementia and really doesn't remember what you tell him a few minutes before. He knows he has a heart problem and that's why he's in the hospital, but doesn't understand why he can't leave. He's very amiable and likes to talk to anybody who will talk back. He's able to walk around safely and is not a threat to himself or others, so we can't really assign him a "sitter" or anything. The trouble is, he keeps wandering around. Usually, he sticks to our floor... but once in a while he ventures off to other floors.

Today we were a little short on staff and I was watching my team plus another person's while he was on lunch - a total of 18 rooms to watch! A few of them were empty, but it's still a long stretch of rooms with some patients who need pretty serious care.

I got a phone call while passing out lunch trays - the ward clerk told me she just got a call from the emergency department, where my patient was walking around. That's on the first floor and we're on the fifth. I had to stop what I was doing to run downstairs. When I got there, they told me he was on his way to the cafeteria. On my way to the cafeteria, I see him walking toward me. I told him I had his lunch in his room and that it was getting cold, so he was more than happy to go back with me. "Let's go!!" He ran off to the elevator.

*sigh*