Oh. My. Gawd. I so do not want to go to work tomorrow night and I will be so glad when tomorrow evening is over and I have a few days off (well, ACLS but a couple of days away from the patients). Holy hell, it was so bad tonight I was singing to Connie "God hates me, toooooooonight." It was horrible. Let me count the ways:
1) The family of the patient who, the family not the patient, apparently think that the Hilton Hotel is spelled H-O-S-P-I-T-A-L. I know they're trying to be assertive but so many times people confuse assertive with aggressive and obnoxious. Here's a clue I'd like to give directly to them now that I can say these things out loud, in a manner of speaking: you're not a doctor, nurse, or respiratory therapist. Do not touch the flowmeters, do not tell the nurse she better get her ass in there with morphine tout suite even though you've been told it's not time yet, do not get in the doctor's face and start shouting at him that he doesn't know what he's doing. How would you know? Did you go to med school? Did you know that oxygen is considered a drug and that it is harmful to get too little or much too much of it? Leave the flowmeters alone. We carry pulse oxes for a reason and it's not because we need one more thing to top the six pound mark in our scrub pockets. Do not assume the doc's an idiot just because you don't understand the treatments and tests he's choosing. Absolutely, if you have a question or feel something more needs to be done please please please bring it to our attention but calling us names, yelling at us, and getting mad and being hateful to us every time you don't get your way because we have medical protocols to follow is not helping anyone in the situation and it doesn't intimidate us. It just makes us tired. Of you.
2) The doc who decided to take the crazy lady off her meds just to see what would happen was valid but I wish I'd known that's what was happening when my mild mannered first rounds little old lady became a snarling bitch who threw a punch at me on second rounds.
3)The lady who told me she was too busy pooping, talking to her visitors, pooping, eating dinner, pooping every time I stopped by, SIX TIMES, during first rounds, who said to me when I finally found her at the beginning of second rounds with absolutely nothing better to do than take her breathing treatment, who said to me "So you finally got around to coming back and giving me my treatment?"
I could go on but I'm running out of steam and getting tired. I'm really not upset. Some of the night was frustrating but after a while I started cracking up at each thing that happened and getting curious about what would happen next. Out of 20 patients I only had 2 or 3 that it wasn't some long drawn out Murphy's Law kind of experience where everything took twice as long or more than it should have.
I didnt' sleep but a few hours last night so I need to get in bed before 3am tonight.
Think good thoughts for me for tomorrow night, okay?
Oh. My. Gawd. I so do not want to go to work tomorrow night and I will be so glad when tomorrow evening is over and I have a few days off (well, ACLS but a couple of days away from the patients). Holy hell, it was so bad tonight I was singing to Connie "God hates me, toooooooonight." It was horrible. Let me count the ways:
1) The family of the patient who, the family not the patient, apparently think that the Hilton Hotel is spelled H-O-S-P-I-T-A-L. I know they're trying to be assertive but so many times people confuse assertive with aggressive and obnoxious. Here's a clue I'd like to give directly to them now that I can say these things out loud, in a manner of speaking: you're not a doctor, nurse, or respiratory therapist. Do not touch the flowmeters, do not tell the nurse she better get her ass in there with morphine tout suite even though you've been told it's not time yet, do not get in the doctor's face and start shouting at him that he doesn't know what he's doing. How would you know? Did you go to med school? Did you know that oxygen is considered a drug and that it is harmful to get too little or much too much of it? Leave the flowmeters alone. We carry pulse oxes for a reason and it's not because we need one more thing to top the six pound mark in our scrub pockets. Do not assume the doc's an idiot just because you don't understand the treatments and tests he's choosing. Absolutely, if you have a question or feel something more needs to be done please please please bring it to our attention but calling us names, yelling at us, and getting mad and being hateful to us every time you don't get your way because we have medical protocols to follow is not helping anyone in the situation and it doesn't intimidate us. It just makes us tired. Of you.
2) The doc who decided to take the crazy lady off her meds just to see what would happen was valid but I wish I'd known that's what was happening when my mild mannered first rounds little old lady became a snarling bitch who threw a punch at me on second rounds.
3)The lady who told me she was too busy pooping, talking to her visitors, pooping, eating dinner, pooping every time I stopped by, SIX TIMES, during first rounds, who said to me when I finally found her at the beginning of second rounds with absolutely nothing better to do than take her breathing treatment, who said to me "So you finally got around to coming back and giving me my treatment?"
I could go on but I'm running out of steam and getting tired. I'm really not upset. Some of the night was frustrating but after a while I started cracking up at each thing that happened and getting curious about what would happen next. Out of 20 patients I only had 2 or 3 that it wasn't some long drawn out Murphy's Law kind of experience where everything took twice as long or more than it should have.
I didnt' sleep but a few hours last night so I need to get in bed before 3am tonight.
Think good thoughts for me for tomorrow night, okay?