#4: Annoying
If I had to categorize Monday night's call with one word it would be: "annoying". I'm worried that this blog may turn into a giant post-call bitch session on my part, but I got really frustrated with the way the system works last call night.
I got a call from the lab saying that one of the patients that I was covering (ie, not a patient that my team takes care of daily) had some critically low labs. I ran up to the patient's room and it seemed like he was doing OK but his vital signs were dropping to an almost critical value. So I tried to figure out what was wrong with him. However, looking at the patient' chart was no help because he had a blank chart (his primary team did not write out any sort of documentation about their plan for the patient.) Further detective work on my part found that the patient had been in the hospital for 10 hours and no one had done anything to treat the reason he came to hospital in the first place (ie extrardinarily low blood volume!) It was extraordinarily frustrating to try to get the poor guy some treatment.
ME: (10 hours after the patient should have gotten an IV.) "OK, now I'm going to start an IV on the patient."
NURSE: (Getting up from her lounge chair) "No doctor, let me do it."
ME: (1 hour later) "What is taking the blood so long to get here?"
NURSE: "I have to go get it from the blood bank."
ME: (15 minutes later and no blood.) "OK, now I'm going to get blood."
NURSE: (Getting up from her chair from which she hadn't moved for 15 minutes) "No doctor, let me do it."
We ended up transferring the patient to the ICU, and I pushed both the patient's bed AND IV pole. The lazy nurse came along and she actually physically GOT IN THE WAY of us moving the patient (ie, I had to continuously slam on the brakes of the bed in order to avoid hitting the nurse!) I really almost lost it with her.
Patients covered on last call night: Around 35.
Amount of sleep on last call night: 20 minutes.
Currently reading: Greenfield's chapter on Diseases of the Exocrine Pancreas.
Currently watching: Season finale for 6 Feet Under Season 4.
Next blog: Some time after my next call night which is Saturday July 15, 2006.
I got a call from the lab saying that one of the patients that I was covering (ie, not a patient that my team takes care of daily) had some critically low labs. I ran up to the patient's room and it seemed like he was doing OK but his vital signs were dropping to an almost critical value. So I tried to figure out what was wrong with him. However, looking at the patient' chart was no help because he had a blank chart (his primary team did not write out any sort of documentation about their plan for the patient.) Further detective work on my part found that the patient had been in the hospital for 10 hours and no one had done anything to treat the reason he came to hospital in the first place (ie extrardinarily low blood volume!) It was extraordinarily frustrating to try to get the poor guy some treatment.
ME: (10 hours after the patient should have gotten an IV.) "OK, now I'm going to start an IV on the patient."
NURSE: (Getting up from her lounge chair) "No doctor, let me do it."
ME: (1 hour later) "What is taking the blood so long to get here?"
NURSE: "I have to go get it from the blood bank."
ME: (15 minutes later and no blood.) "OK, now I'm going to get blood."
NURSE: (Getting up from her chair from which she hadn't moved for 15 minutes) "No doctor, let me do it."
We ended up transferring the patient to the ICU, and I pushed both the patient's bed AND IV pole. The lazy nurse came along and she actually physically GOT IN THE WAY of us moving the patient (ie, I had to continuously slam on the brakes of the bed in order to avoid hitting the nurse!) I really almost lost it with her.
Patients covered on last call night: Around 35.
Amount of sleep on last call night: 20 minutes.
Currently reading: Greenfield's chapter on Diseases of the Exocrine Pancreas.
Currently watching: Season finale for 6 Feet Under Season 4.
Next blog: Some time after my next call night which is Saturday July 15, 2006.
posted by Stephen Maturin @ 7/12/2006 04:01:00 PM
6 Comments:
At Thu Jul 13, 05:36:00 AM 2006,
Anonymous said…
you should get a caddle prod for the nurses.
patients have filed suit against nurses like that.
At Thu Jul 13, 03:45:00 PM 2006,
Anonymous said…
Keep up the good work.
At Fri Jul 14, 02:10:00 PM 2006,
Anonymous said…
wow the patient was lucky that you came along. what would have happened if you hadn't??
At Fri Jul 14, 09:01:00 PM 2006,
Anonymous said…
Congratulations...I have bookmarked you and you now have a fourth confirmed reader. "The good thing about being a patient on the surgical floor? You're close to the hospital." -An old residency proverb
At Sat Jul 15, 02:23:00 PM 2006,
Anonymous said…
this is the way it goes...and if you get upset with bad nursing behavior you're the bad guy... I'm told that a great book for understanding bargaining etc. is "Getting to Yes" which is what patient care is all about.. getting everyone to do what they are supposed to when they are supposed to is an artform and part of the traing. PB used to say " be careful, there are more of them than there are of you, and they can make your life miserable"
At Sun Jul 16, 05:57:00 PM 2006,
Stephen Maturin said…
Thank you everyone for reading and leaving comments! I'm so thrilled about all the advice and proverbs to help me make it through the year... I am just learning how to play the game of "Getting to Yes" and I love the quote about a surgery floor being "close to the hospital." Honestly, it's not quite like that on the main floor that I work on but on some of the satellite wards it certainly is... Thanks again!
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