Most ridiculous question from a nurse while on call

[mmmmdonuts]

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what imagin916 posts is laughable. while of course there are circumstances where nurses catch incorrect orders, to portray that as the norm or the reason why they generally bug residents is either ignorant or deliberately misleading. that occurs perhaps 1% of the time. so its nice to go on and on about how youre trying to be all thorough and saving lives and so on but thats all pretty much a distortion of the truth. matter of fact i wish nurses were that conscientious because then theyd put some effort into thinking about things instead of just trying to find someone to take responsibility for everything. nurses hardly think twice about anything which is why they are calling about bps of 150/95 and acting all worried even after years of nursing. and if you say thats because theyre trying to retaliate then thats just as pathetic because it demonstrates how unprofessional and pitiful they are, as i said already.

 

[imagin916]

what imagin916 posts is laughable. while of course there are circumstances where nurses catch incorrect orders, to portray that as the norm or the reason why they generally bug residents is either ignorant or deliberately misleading. that occurs perhaps 1% of the time. so its nice to go on and on about how youre trying to be all thorough and saving lives and so on but thats all pretty much a distortion of the truth. matter of fact i wish nurses were that conscientious because then theyd put some effort into thinking about things instead of just trying to find someone to take responsibility for everything. nurses hardly think twice about anything which is why they are calling about bps of 150/95 and acting all worried even after years of nursing. and if you say thats because theyre trying to retaliate then thats just as pathetic because it demonstrates how unprofessional and pitiful they are, as i said already.

This is the most pathetic attempt at trying to make me look wrong when you know you I'm not. You cant even give an answer that is not an attack. You honestly think that the only reason nurses call doctors is to "bug" them? I have too many things to do than call for no reason. YOU are the one that says that nurses call you to retaliate and trying to put words into my mouth. If I want retaliation, that is not the way to go about it. If I was to work with you and be abused by you, the chairman of my department would know, who would in turn call your chairman, and what a nice little meeting you would all have. I'm pitiful? You are the one that cant even acknowledge that you can and might in fact make a mistake that a nurse can catch. You obviously havent been around enough because if you had you would know that mistakes are common and happen more than 1% of the time. If that were the case, that why would you be paying malpractice if mistakes were so rare? The fact that you think you already havent is probably a good sign that you are not even aware that you made any mistakes. Pretty scary if you ask me. Any resident who works in the ICU or the ER knows that the nurses there function very independantly and we dont need you to hold our hand. I am licensed by the state, I am held responsible for what I do, passing the blame onto the physician when the mistake is mine does not fly in court. You however are a resident, you are not licensed. If you F up, your attending is the one that is held ultimately responsible not you. Do you hear the attendings going around saying how stupid and pitiful the residents are and how they will cause them to lose thier license? I dont think so, and if you did hear that I am sure you wouldnt be too happy. I do not know any nurse who calls any doctor over a b/p of 150/95, and believe me a nurse that has been working 20 years is not acting all worried about the little things. He/She probably knows a lot more than you do as an intern.

 

[MD'05]

One night I was on call and pretty well rested and in between admissions at 1 am so I was sitting at the nurses' station. One of the nurses was pissed at a resident on another service and stated, "I'll just call the resident and wake him up." The nurse thought she was getting revenge. The patient had a temperature of 38.4 and prn tylenol was written.

Thought I would share.

 

[Doc-Hollywood]

1. Any call that begins with "sorry to bother you but".....is probably a call you didn't need to get in the first place. If it was important, they wouldn't be "sorry to bother you". I have never started a call with "sorry to bother you" because if I am up, the person I am calling can be up too , and if what I had to tell them wasn't important enough for me to wake them up, then I wouldn't be calling in the first place!! Simple

2. Any call that begins with " just wanted to let you know" or " just wanted to give you a heads up" ....I promise that I didn't need to know or get a "heads up" until whatever was going to happen, actually happened. Why should I lay in bed waiting for the impending disaster, when I can't do anything about it except burn a hole in my stomach.

3. Dumbest call I ever got was from the typical Sherlock Holmes night nurse. You know the type that thinks they are going to discover some very valuable clue in the medical record at 3 AM and save the day. Real pains in the ass.

anyway, it was on a patient that had been placed on peritoneal dialysis the day prior, and she calls me with a ( 10 hour old ) CRITICAL VALUE of a Low BUN and Cr!
I of course being the on the ball doc , quickly gave her a task and told her to type and crossmatch two units of BUN and give it over an hour.


Why people feel the need to inform you of normal values still amazes me.
THE savvy physician writes orders with parameters, like call me ONLY IF............

oh and bringing donuts to the night shift helps too. Nothing wrong with kissing ass to the people that can or cannot call with every little thing

Disclaimer : I love nurses. 99% are overworked and work for total *****s who gravitate into management positions. I get along great with them and know that without the MD's the hospital probably does OK. Without the RN's, the place shuts down in 10 minutes!

...and when they call me and wake me up with bullcrap, I just reind myself that I make 10 times more $ than them, and any anger just sort of disappears. 😀

Let me preface this, before there is the typical huge uproar from the nursing population, that the vast majority of nurses excel at what they do. This is not meant to be mean or condescending in any way, shape or form. That being said, I got a page last night at 345am that I have to share.

Pager goes off: 14520 (Constant Care floor)
Me (who was trying to close my eyes before the morning labs start coming back and the barrage of pages ensues) calls back.

Me: Hello?
Nurse: Yes, are you the orthopedic resident on call?
Me: Yes.
Nurse: Well, your patient in 523 is not eating.
Me: Why would he be eating at 3 in the morning?
Nurse: I woke him up because he didn't eat his dinner last night and asked him why. He said he hated our food, and also would not eat breakfast unless we had pancakes. I called the cafeteria and they said they don't have pancakes. What should I do?
Me (blood pressure rising): Let me get this straight. Are you calling me at 345AM . . . for pancakes?
Nurse: Yes.
Me: utter silence . . . and then hangs up in disbelief.

Looking at this now, I have to admit that it is pretty damn funny. I mean, seriously, f_c_in' pancakes? Unbelievable.

Anyways, I was hoping that you all would have some similar stories that we could laugh about. Just something to kill the time left on call

. . .

 

[toofache32]

...and she calls me with a ( 10 hour old ) CRITICAL VALUE of a Low BUN and Cr!
I of course being the on the ball doc , quickly gave her a task and told her to type and crossmatch two units of BUN and give it over an hour...

Why do people keep telling these urban legends and saying "I did this...."?

 

[sacrament]

Why do people keep telling these urban legends and saying "I did this...."?

Apparently the BUN-transfusion is not the isolated response that I thought it was, but I absolutely know that at least one intern has actually pulled it because I had to round on his patients when he was absent from the wards for disciplinary hearings regarding, yes, his ordering of a BUN transfusion. Maybe he'd heard the legend too and decided to make it real. All the teams on the wards then had to attend a mandatory "team-work and communication" meeting.

 

[footcramp]

not really a question...

one day i was asking an intern about the pathophysiology of symptom resulting from dehydration, and the nurse interrupts and "explains" to me that when the body is dry, it gets really "angry", "pissed off" and "cranky" and starts going crazy. then she goes on to say how she's seen this a thousand times before.

i sat there baffled, wondering 1) if more people think of the body in these simplistic anthropomorphized / mystical ways, and 2) how it is possible to be so shameless as to answer my legitimate question with a 5 year old's explanation when the question wasn't even directed at her in the first place.

 

[toxic-megacolon]

not really a question...

one day i was asking an intern about the pathophysiology of symptom resulting from dehydration, and the nurse interrupts and "explains" to me that when the body is dry, it gets really "angry", "pissed off" and "cranky" and starts going crazy. then she goes on to say how she's seen this a thousand times before.

i sat there baffled, wondering 1) if more people think of the body in these simplistic anthropomorphized / mystical ways, and 2) how it is possible to be so shameless as to answer my legitimate question with a 5 year old's explanation when the question wasn't even directed at her in the first place.

Classic. 🙄

 

[Doc-Hollywood]

Why do people keep telling these urban legends and saying "I did this...."?

sorry but it happened.

 

[ckyuen]

I much rather get a call asking me a question perceived as stupid then hear about it in the morning and find out it was something critical. Think about all the simple things you did not know as an ms 3 nurses can do. dosing of medications, starting an IV. And for me it was always better to get the nothing call and go back to sleep than get the call where a patient was crashing. in my internship we didn't sleep at night anyways so it didn't really matter. we had no caps on our night call, admitted 18 patients from 7 pm to 7 am one night by myself. most nights admitted more than 10. and ICU call we did all icu admissions for all services except general surgery, and cross covered all of the other floor patients except the oncall team. Remember you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, always be nice to nurses or it can bite you in the you know what. even now when i am in surgery and a scrub nurse completely screws up and loads my lenses upside down which is discoverable after the lens is injected in the eye and fails to unfold and I have to manipulate the lens and unfold the haptics in the bag all while trying not to break the 4 micron thick capsule. I tell them let me show you how I prefer to have the lens loaded next time instead of yelling at them which would do no good. After teaching them once they dont give it to me the wrong way again. Yell at them and they will just tremble and make more mistakes

 

[3dtp]

To the poster who stated that residencies wont throw out a resident because they are afraid that newcomers will stay away from that program, this is simply not true. They do not just kick people out of a residency for a disagreement or two with a nurse, but if they demonstrate continued abusive behavior which in turn creates a hostile environment for everyone and effects the care of the patients, they will fire them. There are no shortage of residents to fill the spot next year.

I beg to differ. While you may be correct in general, there are highly malignant programs who will do just that [throw a resident out of a program for a disagreement or two]. And you are correct, they have a ready supply of grist for the mill. I think some brave soul (not me...clucking noises in the background) should start a new thread on this, since it clearly doesn't belong on this one, but this comment needed a response. I apologize for prolonging the agony. BTW, my wife's a PhD nurse, the joy of my life, saw the serious problems created by hostile environments created by nurses who do go out of their way to create problems for docs and vice versa.

Residents be fully warned, and document everything you do to cover yourself.

Residents can put the word out on malignant programs, and incoming residents who do not heed any hint of problems with a program, institution or specific program director do so at their professional peril.

Residents who put the word out on malignant programs, need to be very
careful about covering their identity for very obvious reasons...

There was an article about this last August in Time magazine. See www.semmelweis.org for details. So, please people, we all need to remember that we are all part of the same team and in the ideal world, we need to work smoothly together to get the job done.

Now, my funny. [In which a nurse saved the day...]


Page: "Yes?"
Nurse: Why did you order a breast pump to bedside, lactation consult, oxytocin, sitz baths and pads to the bedside of your 67 yom admitted for AMI this AM?
Me: I did that?
Nurse: Lemme check....no, it was Dr. X, was he covering?
Me: I'll get back to you but hold all that stuff for a moment.
Page: "This is Dr. X, I was paged."
Me: High Dr. X, did you happen to order a post partum order set this morning?
DrX: Yes. Several.
Me: Hmmm, well I think you hit a wrong button on the user hostile computer system. Mr. Y, my 67 yo AMI patient is wondering if the breast pump and sitz baths will relieve his chest pain?"

 

[MD'05]

... and know that without the MD's the hospital probably does OK. ...

I absolutely hate when attendings make this statement. This is what feeds into the egos of these stupid nurses. I believed this once upon a time. It is a filthy lie, believe me.

 

[mmmmdonuts]

You honestly think that the only reason nurses call doctors is to "bug" them?

i hope so. because the only other explanation is that youre extremely motivated to demonstrate a complete ignorance of medicine to random passers-by.

If I was to work with you and be abused by you, the chairman of my department would know, who would in turn call your chairman, and what a nice little meeting you would all have.

i know. wed all be laughing about you and slapping each other on the backs. youd be out trying to page someone to tell you what the plan was so you could pretend youre an integral part of the team.

 

[southerndoc]

1. Any call that begins with "sorry to bother you but".....is probably a call you didn't need to get in the first place. If it was important, they wouldn't be "sorry to bother you". I have never started a call with "sorry to bother you" because if I am up, the person I am calling can be up too , and if what I had to tell them wasn't important enough for me to wake them up, then I wouldn't be calling in the first place!! Simple

Saying that has no relation to the quality of the call.

Anytime after 9 pm, I always say "sorry to bother you" or "sorry to wake you" when I call for admissions, follow up, etc. from the ED. I say it whether it's an iffy admission (one of those that could probably go home, but the attending says admit for legal reasons) or if it's an ICU admission for an intubated patient. Heck I even said it the other day talking to a cardiologist on a cath lab activation! "Sorry to bother you John, but I have a 48 year old male here with an inferior ST elevation MI that needs to go to the lab."

 

[southerndoc]

Page: "Yes?"
Nurse: Why did you order a breast pump to bedside, lactation consult, oxytocin, sitz baths and pads to the bedside of your 67 yom admitted for AMI this AM?
Me: I did that?
Nurse: Lemme check....no, it was Dr. X, was he covering?
Me: I'll get back to you but hold all that stuff for a moment.
Page: "This is Dr. X, I was paged."
Me: High Dr. X, did you happen to order a post partum order set this morning?
DrX: Yes. Several.
Me: Hmmm, well I think you hit a wrong button on the user hostile computer system. Mr. Y, my 67 yo AMI patient is wondering if the breast pump and sitz baths will relieve his chest pain?"

Nice!

I once had a cardiology fellow order aspirin, Plavix, heparin and Integrillin on my GI bleeder boarding in the CCU. Anticoagulants isn't the best thing to order for a patient with active esophageal variceal bleeding with a crit of 16, INR of 3, and getting pumped full of blood while GI is preparing to emergently scope.

 

[Blade28]

Saying that has no relation to the quality of the call.

Anytime after 9 pm, I always say "sorry to bother you" or "sorry to wake you" when I call for admissions, follow up, etc. from the ED.

👍 Wish you worked in our ER.

 

[mmmmdonuts]

Nice!

I once had a cardiology fellow order aspirin, Plavix, heparin and Integrillin on my GI bleeder boarding in the CCU. Anticoagulants isn't the best thing to order for a patient with active esophageal variceal bleeding with a crit of 16, INR of 3, and getting pumped full of blood while GI is preparing to emergently scope.

true, but you should keep two things in mind. firstly is a general rule: although a consultant should keep all things in mind about a patient it is the primary teams responsibility to manage the overall patient. in other words it is not uncommon and acceptable for someone to say 'you should anticoagulate unless there are contraindications.' thats a consultants job. its your job to figure out if there are contraindications not his.

second of all youre the one asking him a question, hotshot. so why are you? why did you consult cardiology on a gi bleeder who had a crit of 16? cardiac problems? so what? you worried hes gonna have an mi due to anemia or something? if so, whats the solution? seems to me the problem is you pan-consulting because probably the guy had a cardiac history am i right?

instead of doing your thinking in retrospect why dont you do it prospectively next time?

 

[deleted87716]

its your job to figure out if there are contraindications not his.

If anyone I consulted felt that way, they'd never see another one of my patients.

 

[southerndoc]

true, but you should keep two things in mind. firstly is a general rule: although a consultant should keep all things in mind about a patient it is the primary teams responsibility to manage the overall patient. in other words it is not uncommon and acceptable for someone to say 'you should anticoagulate unless there are contraindications.' thats a consultants job. its your job to figure out if there are contraindications not his.

second of all youre the one asking him a question, hotshot. so why are you? why did you consult cardiology on a gi bleeder who had a crit of 16? cardiac problems? so what? you worried hes gonna have an mi due to anemia or something? if so, whats the solution? seems to me the problem is you pan-consulting because probably the guy had a cardiac history am i right?

The cardiology fellow was entering in post-cath orders for an MI patient, or so he thought. He clicked on the wrong name in our computer system. One of the MICU patients (the GI bleeder) was a "CCU boarder" because the MICU was full.

The cardiology fellows usually enter in their own post-cath orders.

This was not a case of a cardiology fellow consulting on a GI bleeder and knowingly entering in orders for the GI bleeder. He clicked on the wrong name and entered in orders on the wrong patient.

instead of doing your thinking in retrospect why dont you do it prospectively next time?

Hey hotshot, don't jump to conclusions about me pan-consulting so quickly.

 

[southerndoc]

If anyone I consulted felt that way, they'd never see another one of my patients.

Some people have no respect or courtesy toward others.

 

[southerndoc]

👍 Wish you worked in our ER.

Don't speak so soon... I may be an attending at your institution during your residency. 🙂

 

[Blade28]

Don't speak so soon... I may be an attending at your institution during your residency. 🙂

That wouldn't be a problem, since I've gotten along great with all the ER attendings here. 🙂

 

[southerndoc]

That wouldn't be a problem, since I've gotten along great with all the ER attendings here. 🙂

Hopefully JPS is treating you well.

 

[DrNick2006]

I am never mean to the med students or interns unless they are mean to me first. I go out of my way for the med students especially, because even if they are not mistreated, many of them feel like they are unimportant. Most of them are bright, enthusiastic individuals, and I really like working with them. I enjoy teaching them what I know, and learning from them in the process.

Poor attitude

Why do we think that somewhat else' poor behavior is permissive to our own behavior towards them. I try to treat everyone with respect, regardless of if THEY do the same thing. Think about it, if you are nasty to a person who already is nasty themselves do you think those two negatives will cancel and they will be nice? No, it will get worse. If you have a continued problem with someone then you talk to them about it.

Excuse me, nurse XXX, I get the impression that you may not care for me, have I done something to offend? Well the reason I ask is .... I'm sorry .... its a burden on me when you are calling with XXXX all the time, .... Maybe we can do this ... problem solved 95% of the time.

 

[mmmmdonuts]

If anyone I consulted felt that way, they'd never see another one of my patients.

really? that says a lot about how you feel about your role as the primary team for your patient. apparently you feel you can just call someone else in to do all your work and then sit back and relax. do you work in the er by chance?

 

[mmmmdonuts]

This was not a case of a cardiology fellow consulting on a GI bleeder and knowingly entering in orders for the GI bleeder. He clicked on the wrong name and entered in orders on the wrong patient.

wow great story. so you started out by saying that this fellow was so ignorant that he stupidly tried to anticoagulate a gi bleeder and left it at that. then it comes out that he clicked on the wrong name. that guy should probably kill himself. you win for best partial story of the year that came out only because you were challenged..

 

[f_w]

Particularly the windows based EMR and order entry systems are very prone to the 'orders on wrong patient' type f-ups. Some of them allow you to open more than one patient at a time which is an invitation to clicking something int the wrong chart. Yes, this can be done on paper (and god knows, has been done before), but it is much easier to do it electronically.

 

[deleted87716]

Particularly the windows based EMR and order entry systems are very prone to the 'orders on wrong patient' type f-ups. Some of them allow you to open more than one patient at a time which is an invitation to clicking something int the wrong chart. Yes, this can be done on paper (and god knows, has been done before), but it is much easier to do it electronically.

As the old saying goes, "To err is human; to really foul things up, you need a computer." 😉

 

[fuegorama]

wow great story. so you started out by saying that this fellow was so ignorant that he stupidly tried to anticoagulate a gi bleeder and left it at that. then it comes out that he clicked on the wrong name. that guy should probably kill himself. you win for best partial story of the year that came out only because you were challenged..

sniff-
smells a lot like kinetic to me...anybody else?

 

[imagin916]

i know. wed all be laughing about you and slapping each other on the backs. youd be out trying to page someone to tell you what the plan was so you could pretend youre an integral part of the team.[/QUOTE]


I dont think so, we'd all be laughing at YOU because your sorry ass would be the one facing trouble not me. The chairman of my department backs up his staff like he should, and no intern from another department is going to get me in trouble. Keep up your abusive ways my friend, I just wish I could see you in my hospital doing that so I can clap my hands while you are being escorted out the door

 

[sacrament]

sniff-
smells a lot like kinetic to me...anybody else?

This is pretty much an accepted truth.

 

[mmmmdonuts]

The chairman of my department backs up his staff like he should, and no intern from another department is going to get me in trouble.

nurses have chairmen? hey did you tell your chairman tha you purposely try to harrass residents as you said on this thread? or did you lie about it like i think you do because you have no guts?

 

[BlahtoThis]

Nurses screw up.
Residents screw up.
Attendings screw up.
EVERYBODY screws up.

Imagin has to admit that nurses screw up as much as anybody else. Some screw up a lot, others less often. I do fully agree that they are an integral part of patient care. He/she's probably screwed up too.

Donuts has to admit that MD's also screw up a whole bunch. He/she probably has also screwed up, whether forgetting a patient name, writing the wrong thing down, or forgetting something about a random patient.

Ultimately, all these people exist to place checks and balances on each other. Doctors are expected to be able to take care of the global problems of their patients, nurses are expected to have knowledge and take care of the "nitty gritty" of individual patients (which is why they don't cover nearly as many people as a doctor is responsible for). That's why nursing calls seem dumb a lot of the time and why sometimes residents seem incompetent when they order the wrong thing on a patient or the right thing but on the wrong patient. Residents just have to keep track of a whole lot more people than a nurse does. And a nurse is faced with a whole lot more information that he/she has about each individual patient (vitals per floor protocol, I/O's, new lab results to place in the chart, monitoring patient complaints). Not all nurses do this, but I'd rather keep the ones that do and call me in the middle of the night for small things and get rid of the ones that don't at the expense of patient care.

If you just take a step back and recognize where the other person is coming from, life would be a heck of a lot better. Imagin and donuts are two peas in a pod, and if they were each in the other's positions, they would probably be exactly the same. Also, realize that some nurses just suck and some doctors just suck, and neither often gets weeded out.

The only thing I've noticed that I take issue with is the difference in reaction to a bad nurse versus a bad doctor amongst their peers. Doctors are willing to say, "boy that doctor sucks" or "I would NEVER want to work with him." Nurses are often unwilling to admit that another nurse is bad and find the need to "stick together" which is just plain dumb because there are bad nurses who do need to get pointed out.

 

[mmmmdonuts]

Donuts has to admit that MD's also screw up a whole bunch.

sure. but you say that its more difficult for nurses so thats why they take care of fewer patients? no. they do more grunt work sure but thats not more difficult. thinking is more difficult. and nurses dont do much of that . if they did you wouldnt hear a lot of these questions

plus every time this issue comes up nurses all say that they do this on puirpose to 'get even' with residents. but then they deny that later and say that theyre just really dedicated individuals who are trying to protect their patients.

 

[BlahtoThis]

sure. but you say that its more difficult for nurses so thats why they take care of fewer patients? no. they do more grunt work sure but thats not more difficult. thinking is more difficult. and nurses dont do much of that . if they did you wouldnt hear a lot of these questions

plus every time this issue comes up nurses all say that they do this on puirpose to 'get even' with residents. but then they deny that later and say that theyre just really dedicated individuals who are trying to protect their patients.

I don't think anybody would disagree that most of the thought process in medicine is done by doctors. I never said it was more difficult for nurses. In terms of what we put out as doctors to get to where we are, we do have to suffer through a lot more (anybody who denies this is smoking something). My point is only that everybody messes up and that some people just aren't as good at things as others (some nurses are better than others, same with doctors).

 

[mmmmdonuts]

My point is only that everybody messes up and that some people just aren't as good at things as others (some nurses are better than others, same with doctors).

again agreed. but is it a mess up when a lot of the questions in this thread are asked either on purpose or because the person is deliberately not thinking? a lot of nurses dont think because they know they dont have to. they can just tell everything to someone and say 'ok now you go do something with that info in fact tell me what to do right now. what do you want and oh what is your name so i can write it down?"

 

[BlahtoThis]

I'm not disagreeing with that point either. Some nurses ask utterly stupid questions and don't think. But so do doctors. That's my only point. And both do it to the detriment of our lives as residents. The reactions on this thread from imagin and from you have been extraordinarily defensive of your respective points about your respective positions regarding the relative adequacies and inadequacies of doctors and nurses. Who knows why either of you deems it necessary to argue the point out? There are going to be nurses out there who feel so self-important but, know what, they'll NEVER earn as much as us, so who cares? There will be doctors out there who think all nurses are c**p, but they're probably obnoxious jerks who regard all humanity this way and have no friends or social life, so who cares about them either?

Again, the only difference between nurses and doctors that I see in terms of acts of stupidity around doctor colleagues is accountability to your peers. Nurses usually don't seem to care to put down other nurses or admit that their colleagues suck. And they seem to be more than ready to defend their fellow nurses. Meanwhile, doctors are more than willing to put down other doctors. Maybe the nurses don't realize how much doctors actually judge other doctors and how they act. I know I've heard plenty of times on call "oh c**p, doctor x is on in the ER tonight" from my senior resident.

Some people suck. Some people don't. Just deal with it is all I'm saying.

This thread was meant to point out funny, stupid things people have said to each other. If people would sit back and stop taking themselves so seriously all the time (imagin, for example), then the world would be a far better place. People will get pissed off at you, people will be happy with you. You'll get pissed off at people, you'll be happy with people. Sometimes there's no rhyme or reason to when or why. But carrying this aura of self-importance is inane.

 

[southerndoc]

wow great story. so you started out by saying that this fellow was so ignorant that he stupidly tried to anticoagulate a gi bleeder and left it at that. then it comes out that he clicked on the wrong name. that guy should probably kill himself. you win for best partial story of the year that came out only because you were challenged..

Doesn't it make you feel special that you challenged me?

For the record, I never stated that he was consulted, taking care of, or knowingly entering orders on the GI bleeder. You came to that assumption, an assumption which was wrong.

 

[f_w]

He IS 'special'.

 

[bell412]

southern doc - your cool.

For the rest of you wocs, I'll admit working on some dip s hit medical floor your going to get dumb ass calls. I'm glad you get the dip s hit calls, you need it. Just remember you signed up for it.

Wait until you go to an SICU. The only thing your going to do is your stupid f uckin H&P's and some dip s hit standard orders you'll fu ck up. I'm talkin to you first and second year dumb s hitss. Ya, your dumb s hitss. Ive seen your dumb asses a million times get an admission and the first thing you do is your dumb s hits H&P. The RN knows the entire process. Lab work, x-rays, medications, pharm routines. ect , ect. Its not that f cking difficult when you've admitted a thousand closed head injuries, settled countless open heart patients, ect, ect. "Oh but the nurse doesn't know the pathophysiology like we do" . Tell you what woc why don't you take a big jar of adenylate cyclase and whack yourself all night long in your call room.

WOK on Wocters!!!!!!!!!!

 

[21JumpStreet]

I'm not disagreeing with that point either. Some nurses ask utterly stupid questions and don't think. But so do doctors. That's my only point. And both do it to the detriment of our lives as residents. The reactions on this thread from imagin and from you have been extraordinarily defensive of your respective points about your respective positions regarding the relative adequacies and inadequacies of doctors and nurses. Who knows why either of you deems it necessary to argue the point out? There are going to be nurses out there who feel so self-important but, know what, they'll NEVER earn as much as us, so who cares? There will be doctors out there who think all nurses are c**p, but they're probably obnoxious jerks who regard all humanity this way and have no friends or social life, so who cares about them either?

Again, the only difference between nurses and doctors that I see in terms of acts of stupidity around doctor colleagues is accountability to your peers. Nurses usually don't seem to care to put down other nurses or admit that their colleagues suck. And they seem to be more than ready to defend their fellow nurses. Meanwhile, doctors are more than willing to put down other doctors. Maybe the nurses don't realize how much doctors actually judge other doctors and how they act. I know I've heard plenty of times on call "oh c**p, doctor x is on in the ER tonight" from my senior resident.

Some people suck. Some people don't. Just deal with it is all I'm saying.

This thread was meant to point out funny, stupid things people have said to each other. If people would sit back and stop taking themselves so seriously all the time (imagin, for example), then the world would be a far better place. People will get pissed off at you, people will be happy with you. You'll get pissed off at people, you'll be happy with people. Sometimes there's no rhyme or reason to when or why. But carrying this aura of self-importance is inane.

By pointing out imagin in your last paragraph, you are completely contradicting yourself.

As for nurses always backing themselves up, this is not true at all. As a med student and even as a patient, I've seen nurses talk s@#$ about other nurses to a resident or an attending. Co-workers do not always get along. It doesn't matter whether it is nursing or medicine. One can be a great nurse and still get treated like crap by the other nurses. Backstabbers and asskissers exist everywhere.

 

[mmmmdonuts]

Wait until you go to an SICU. The only thing your going to do is your stupid f uckin H&P's and some dip s hit standard orders you'll fu ck up. I'm talkin to you first and second year dumb s hitss. Ya, your dumb s hitss. Ive seen your dumb asses a million times get an admission and the first thing you do is your dumb s hits H&P. The RN knows the entire process. Lab work, x-rays, medications, pharm routines. ect , ect. Its not that f cking difficult when you've admitted a thousand closed head injuries, settled countless open heart patients, ect, ect. "Oh but the nurse doesn't know the pathophysiology like we do" . Tell you what woc why don't you take a big jar of adenylate cyclase and whack yourself all night long in your call room.

you sure talk a lot of smack for someone who takes orders for a living and changes bedpans.

 

[mmmmdonuts]

Doesn't it make you feel special that you challenged me?

For the record, I never stated that he was consulted, taking care of, or knowingly entering orders on the GI bleeder. You came to that assumption, an assumption which was wrong.

yeah how could i have gotten that from this post:

Nice!

I once had a cardiology fellow order aspirin, Plavix, heparin and Integrillin on my GI bleeder boarding in the CCU. Anticoagulants isn't the best thing to order for a patient with active esophageal variceal bleeding with a crit of 16, INR of 3, and getting pumped full of blood while GI is preparing to emergently scope.

 

[f_w]

yeah how could i have gotten that from this post:

By reading and understanding the entire thread.

The post before was about accidental post-partum orders on a 67 year old AMI. Most readers of this thread understood that southerndocs post referred to another such 'order on wrong patient' mishap, not an example of how dense cards fellows can be.

 

[mmmmdonuts]

By reading and understanding the entire thread.

sure. but go one step further. sure the post above his referenced a mistaken identity. but how do both posts fit into the 'entire thread'? the examples given are all about dense mistakes initially by nurses and now because everyone feels guilty, about doctors.

 

[PatrickBateman]

Interesting how many nurses don't hesitate for a moment to treat med students and interns like worthless pieces of crap, but become offended when we share funny stories amongst ourselves.

Yeah, nurses are full of crap. Oddly enough, I find that the best way to deal with them is to pretend to respect them. The trick is to almost believe it yourself. That way it really comes off as sincere. It's great. The nasty ass old beasts are completely neutralized. 👍

 

[f_w]

but how do both posts fit into the 'entire thread'?

In showing that some of the 'most ridiculous questions from a nurse' are sincere attempts to catch seriously mistaken orders. I know, you never make mistakes (I do), a RN or pharmacist might be all that stands between you and a dead patient.

 

[mmmmdonuts]

In showing that some of the 'most ridiculous questions from a nurse' are sincere attempts to catch seriously mistaken orders.

ok if you want to play it in that vein then what question was asked by southerndoc as an attempt to catch a mistaken order?

 

[OUsooner]

Lets face it all of the docs and soon to be docs need to take it easy on Nurse (possibly murse) Bell.

She has cleaned up **** and piss for years. Had to listen to "woks" tear her a new a$$ on countless occasions. The only thing she got out of the whole deal was a fu*k load of anger, which she can only release on anonymous message boards. I really feel sorry for her.

I agree w/ Bateman's tactics of schmoozing with the beast nurses. Flirt with them, buy them donuts - essentially do whatever it takes and than laugh when you put in that next order for fleet enemas.

Most nurses are GREAT but u can always find your "mark" in any unit. Deal with him/her wisely, lest you end up as jaded as Nurse Bell.

 

[f_w]

ok if you want to play it in that vein then what question was asked by southerndoc as an attempt to catch a mistaken order?

You made a fool of yourself by jumping all over him based on your own assumptions and confabulation.