Doctors Throw Tantrums Too

So weekends at the hospital have small potential to be a little less insane than the weekdays. There is usually a lot less patients, but also less staff. Regular services aren't offered on the weekends (in small hospitals such as mine)- services such as physical therapy, non-emergency surgeries, short procedures, etc.

Last night I come on to the floor, and its already a slow night. I'm already finished with my charting at 8pm, which means that I can sit at the nurses station at 8pm- And this is almost unheard of. This means that *sometimes* doctors are still lingering at the station, finishing up the days work for them. This was such the case last night.

Said doctor was already frustrated that he was still doing work at 8pm on a Saturday. He is a specialist and was seeing a patient for that specific specialty, obviously. However the patients family was very upset about a lot of other issues going on with the patient, and Mr.NiceDoctor was attempting to consult other specialties for this patient and even get some therapy started that night to speed up the healing process.

In order to do that, he had to page other doctors to speak with them for advice on what to order. So he pages Doctor #1. Waits 15 minutes. No answer. Pages him again. No answer. Pages another doctor. Doctor #2 answers, He's not on call this weekend- Click! Hang up. Mr.NiceDoctor dials operator in a rage to find out WHO is officially on call for the specialty he needs. Operator says....Oh...Its Doctor #3.  Mr. NiceDoctor pages Doctor #3- That doctor says, "No- you must mean the OTHER DoctorWithTheSameLastNameAsMe. I'm not with that specialty."

This is precisely when Mr.NiceDoctor hangs up the phone and says (rather loudly) to anyone thats within earshot- "IS IT ALWAYS THIS DIFFICULT!?" ( I think he even stomped his foot, too.)

My answer, very softly- "Every day."  And then I smiled.

He then proceeded to ramble on, "Is it always this hard to get in touch with people around here?!"

And I held back....because I love my job, so so so...so, much-And I said nothing except a little shrug. But me and my telepathic coworker said in our minds, "Just doctors!"


In case you like happy endings, Mr.NiceDoctor DID eventually get in contact with the specialty he needed and the patient was started on 3 antibiotics. Happy Ending.



:-) WNB



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Interesting Request

So today I had this male elderly patient.

For some reason, he was perfectly content with finding it necessary to scream for no apparent reason...all the time.

However, simple, short & sweet conversation was, to some extent, still possible.

So today I'm taking vitals on everyone on my floor. I had a full house on my side, so I was pretty busy. He was my last room to stop in, but when I drove my little cart by, he was....you guessed it--screaming. So yay me- decided I might as well go in then and do his vitals and then hopefully tuck him in and he can sleep.

Well, I talk to him, announce I will be doing his vitals and accucheck, and he responds with telling me he peed. All over the bed.

Fantastic! Awesome. Truly, truly great. So I go ahead and get everything I need to get him back to a dry state. Well, since I was alone, and he wasn't too interested in helping me, It was up to me to roll him on his side by myself. However, with every little ounce that I moved him, regardless of if it was to roll over or to simply pick his hand up, he screamed. I had the door closed for his privacy but I was beginning to wonder if people outside would falsely wonder if I was abusing him since he was screaming so much! But, I figured- the actual abuse would be if I let him sit in his pee, right? So I kept changing him, despite the hollering. And the hollering truly didn't make any sense. I would ask him what was wrong and he would just look at me.

So eventually I finished. Barely. I did his vitals. Accucheck. Tucked him in his newly dry sheets. I said goodnight. I turned to leave the room, and I hear....

"Wait!"
Me: "...Yes?"
"I should scream louder."




yes. Yes, that is a fantastic idea. Because I'm pretty sure the next wing over can't yet hear you but if you keep screaming, maybe, just maybe- they might be able to.


And the best part is I have other patients. I am in one of the other rooms at another point, and she tells me, "Oh-I like this hospital a lot, I mean- You guys are great. But there is this poor old man screaming across the hall and that is just not right. I mean I'm sure you go and help him but why are other people just letting him scream? Shouldn't people be helping him? Does he need help? Are you guys just letting him suffer? That is just not right."

I just sort of stared at her and politely explained that yes, we are in fact taking very good care of him but actually, in fact, he really just fancies screaming if we go so as far to prick his finger for an accucheck reading.



*sigh*.



Its the nursing life.

~WNB

LOL.
Taken from This Funny Place.

The Frustrating Cycle of Doctorness

So here's how it goes...

I have "phases" or "bad days" of feeling really sick....It all hits at once. Sometimes I know what caused it (milk got into diet) and I'm OK with surviving through the consequences. But when something hits me and I have no idea whats causing it.....I feel hopeless. I say to myself, I need to see a doctor NOW, but its not serious enough to go to the ER, I just want to see one in an appt. I need to see him and show him the symptoms I am having NOW. But doctors don't see you NOW, they see you when they have an appointment open. By then, I feel better. I usually feel better the next day.

Despite feeling like I am going to die one day, and having myself so convinced that I promise to call the doctor the next day , the next day comes and I feel totally better and I think, "Well....I feel better now. I survived.  I helped myself all on my own. I don't need a silly doctor to help me." Despite feeling desperate for one the day before.

I am just so fed up with how our healthcare system.  I cant even beGIN to explain how frustrated I am with it all. I know something is really, really wrong me and its getting worse....but usually, you wouldn't know just by looking at me. And therefore, doctor's don't know. They have a hard time believing what they can't see. So they put you through endless testing, (sometimes more than once) to try and "see" whats wrong. If they can't figure it out- You are pegged with having Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

I spoke with an NP at the Nurse's convention that specialized in Celiac Disease. She had me convinced that a majority of all my symptoms somehow relate to Celiac Disease. I told her my GI doctor tested via endoscopy and denied it. However, sometimes it doesnt show up that way, especially since I had been on a gluten-free diet previously at the time. So she says I need to have a genetic test. Thats a sure-fire way of knowing if you have the gene or not.

*sigh*. Today is a bad day. But the doctors I want to see aren't open today, and I have so much work to do for the next week MONTH that I can't even envision having an hour to spend with a doctor anyway.

I just want a doctor to look at me, and understand. To believe me. To know what the flying duck they are doing.

*Frustrated*

~ A Writer in a (Frustrated) Nurse's Body