A Lovely Day
Even the most floridly psychotic patients have many important things to say. Sometimes, their words are profoundly wonderful.
Today reminded me of this fact.
To protect confidentially, I’ll change the words, but the gist is this.
Today, I sat in on a music therapy group.
After listening to the Bill Withers song, “Lovely Day,” a patient said, “that’s a biscuit song.” When asked why, the patient responded, “because it’s fluffy and has lots of layers.”
That remark is one of the millions of reasons why I really do love my job (that I pay to have).
The abbreviated lyrics are below:
When I wake up in the morning love
and the sun light hurts my eyes
And something without warning
love
bears heavy on my mind.
Then I look at you and the world’s alright with me
Just one look at you and I know it’s gonna be -
A lovely day - lovely day
When the day that lies ahead of me seems impossible to face
And someone else instead of me always seems to know the way
Then I look at you and the world’s alright with me
Just one look at you and I know it’s gonna be -
A lovely day - lovely day
When the day that lies ahead of me seems impossible to face
A lovely day - lovely day
My name is Kendra and I am a third-year medical student attending 
Confidentiality does not have anything to do with changing the wording of what someone said. You are not allowed to say names, obviously. You *can* repeat what someone said, though.
Thanks for your comment, Alexia. Actually my experience in psych hospitals has been different. Because of the stigma associated with having a mental illness, I’ve found the patient confidentiality laws are much more strict. I was specifically told by my supervisor not to post certain patient details on my blog, so I am also following her rules. Just changing the name is not enough, because people could still potentially be identified based on other information.