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- Aug 6, 2006
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So I'm on the Nightfloat covering general surgery, vascular, colorectal, pediatrics and liver transplant. It's another intern, a third year and me in-house. It's my turn to carry the liver transplant pager. This pager is only supposed to get calls from the floors for patient issues or direct admits.
At about 10pm I get this call on the meet me line from a liver transplant patient who had just had a change in the dosing of her prograf and was having a reaction to the medication.
I told her that I was the intern on wards that night, that I was cross covering the floor and that the operator gave her the wrong number, that who she wanted to speak to was the transplant fellow on call, in any event, I recommended that she come in or to the nearest ED for treatment if she was in any kind of distress.
About 5 min later I get a call from the operator and she asks me if the pager I had was the fellow on call. I explained to her that I was the junior, cross covering the floor, that I had no knowledge of these patients or how to deal with these issues. I then proceded to give her the pager number for the fellow on-call. At the time of the exchange, I never felt that I was being rude, even though I was getting killed with pages, and I never felt that she was offended by anything that I told her.
So I come in today, and my senior tells me that the Transplant attending got a call about me, about how rude I was to the operator, and that he should "deal with me". Thank God my senior knows me well...and knows that I go out of my way to be polite to people that deserve to be screamed at, he told me to be carefull, that as an intern, even the operator can mess with you. Now there is an attending that thinks that I was rude to one of his patients over the phone....even though I should have never gotten that page.
That's internship for you.... the phone operator getting me in trouble.
At about 10pm I get this call on the meet me line from a liver transplant patient who had just had a change in the dosing of her prograf and was having a reaction to the medication.
I told her that I was the intern on wards that night, that I was cross covering the floor and that the operator gave her the wrong number, that who she wanted to speak to was the transplant fellow on call, in any event, I recommended that she come in or to the nearest ED for treatment if she was in any kind of distress.
About 5 min later I get a call from the operator and she asks me if the pager I had was the fellow on call. I explained to her that I was the junior, cross covering the floor, that I had no knowledge of these patients or how to deal with these issues. I then proceded to give her the pager number for the fellow on-call. At the time of the exchange, I never felt that I was being rude, even though I was getting killed with pages, and I never felt that she was offended by anything that I told her.
So I come in today, and my senior tells me that the Transplant attending got a call about me, about how rude I was to the operator, and that he should "deal with me". Thank God my senior knows me well...and knows that I go out of my way to be polite to people that deserve to be screamed at, he told me to be carefull, that as an intern, even the operator can mess with you. Now there is an attending that thinks that I was rude to one of his patients over the phone....even though I should have never gotten that page.
That's internship for you.... the phone operator getting me in trouble.
