Nurses rrrraaaaarrgh!!!!!

[AF_PedsBoy]

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I had a small incident today where I had accidentally brushed a stack of papers and knocked about eight sheets onto the floor - ordinarily I would have picked them up immediately, but a male nurse had said pointedly, "I don't know how they do things at PORTSMOUTH, but at CHKD you clean up your mess and apologize to the nurses." Since I found his phrasing somewhat confrontational, I just replied, "Ho ho that's funny." He then replied, "I can either be your best friend or your worst friend." And I didn't think anything of it afterwards. However an hour or two later, fifteen minutes before my shift was over, I had picked up a new patient because the rack was swamped, and had finished everything except the physical exam, and so I laid down the chart on the nurse's counter (as I was examining the hallway #1 patient, which is in the hall right next to the desk) and when I turned back five minutes later the chart had disappeared. It stayed missing for about an hour while I looked for it in the doctor's area, secretary area, chart racks, discharge rack, and fast track. The entire time the patient's family was a little mystified as well as they said, "Didn't you just put the chart down on that counter over there?"

I was totally frustrated since all I needed was a reprint of the patient's cover page and the nurses were saying, "Oh I'm sorry we can't do that." About an hour after my shift had been over I said, "**** it," and just walked over to the family, said, "I'm sorry, the chart is around here somewhere but it's temporarily missing. Can I retake your information?" And I just wrote down the patient's name and age and then I just started rewriting the H&P on a blank sheet of paper. Literally two minutes after I started someone suddenly "found" it - apparently someone had taken the chart, taken it off its clipboard, and placed it on a clipboard behind someone else's chart. Gee isn't it a good thing they found it just then?

I would have ordinarily chalked it up as an honest mistake, but the chart had been totally blank as the attending had not even seen it yet, and there were no notes on it, it hadn't been signed by me or the attending, and there were no discharge papers on it. I was extremely annoyed as A) the nurse and some of his colleagues had been implying they could either make my life easier or harder; and, B) I could think of no particular reason why anyone would break down a completely new patient's chart and then place it behind another patient's paperwork.

****ing nurses... the worst thing is I'm on good terms with almost all of them and I think only the one nurse was behind it. Oh well, at least it was a whole different team today and all the nurses I'm friends with didn't catch me being pissed off and angry. I wonder if there's a good way to show my appreciation to that particular nurse for his little joke

 

[Mike MacKinnon]

Order Mayo enemas on all your patients.

I har A**holes like that. sorry it had to happen to you.

 

[AF_PedsBoy]

I just found out the a-hole actually wasn't a nurse, he was a tech, so I'm back to feeling warm and fuzzy with the nurses Actually the other techs are all pretty cool too - I had the best tech on New Year's who held two kids for my lacs and helped me get a champagne tap on this 6 weeker who got poked 8 times at the transferring ER - first try baby! 👍

 

[fab4fan]

It can be very difficult to tell who is actually a nurse and who the fakes are. That's deliberate on the part of management; it makes it appear that the floor is well staffed with nurses. Go around and find out exactly how many RNs there are...you'd be surprised.

Sorry that tech was so crappy to you; there was no reason for that.

 

[Doc-Hollywood]

ER techs are traditionally douchebags as far as I am concerned.
To me they are like security guards that couldn't make as cops or in the military. Total wannabees with chips on their shoulders

All hat, no horse.

Ignore them. they are the lowest rungs on the totem pole. That guy obviously knows that in his wildest dreams he won't even achieve the status of a greenhorn med student in a dorky short coat.

I am laughing just imagining this guy.
Let me guess, he's kind of overwight and balding, but he shaves his whole head.He either has a goatee or a biker moustache, right?

From now on whenever you see him, knock sheets off the wall on purpose and innocently say to him " Wow I don't know how things work here but at my other hospital stuff stays on the shelves"

Real nurses on the other hand, I love them. Without them, all hospitals would shut down in 5 minutes. They are the reason healthcar works. Take care of them, respect them. You can learn a lot from them. IF you encounter one with a bad attitude, it's probably because he/she is overworked and underpaid and has crap managers. Just try to make her life easier rather than harder and remember as a med student, you offer them absolutely nothing. You generally make their lives more difficult rather than less difficult. All they want are the orders and you generally delay that process( you'll understand that someday if not already )

But ER tech cop wannabees. Screw them. Don't take their crap.

 

[AF_PedsBoy]

From now on whenever you see him, knock sheets off the wall on purpose and innocently say to him " Wow I don't know how things work here but at my other hospital stuff stays on the shelves"

Ha ha ha that's AWESOME! Of course I'd feel bad doing it because the nurses would probably think I was an a-hole doc, but that's priceless

Oh and you got the balding part down but he's thin instead of overweight... Oh well, I'm all done with ER, though, and on my way to my clinic month (which, essentially, will be exactly what I was doing in ER with a few less lac repairs...)

 

[smkoepke]

I had a small incident today where I had accidentally brushed a stack of papers and knocked about eight sheets onto the floor - ordinarily I would have picked them up immediately, but a male nurse had said pointedly, "I don't know how they do things at PORTSMOUTH, but at CHKD you clean up your mess and apologize to the nurses." Since I found his phrasing somewhat confrontational, I just replied, "Ho ho that's funny." He then replied, "I can either be your best friend or your worst friend." And I didn't think anything of it afterwards. However an hour or two later, fifteen minutes before my shift was over, I had picked up a new patient because the rack was swamped, and had finished everything except the physical exam, and so I laid down the chart on the nurse's counter (as I was examining the hallway #1 patient, which is in the hall right next to the desk) and when I turned back five minutes later the chart had disappeared. It stayed missing for about an hour while I looked for it in the doctor's area, secretary area, chart racks, discharge rack, and fast track. The entire time the patient's family was a little mystified as well as they said, "Didn't you just put the chart down on that counter over there?"

I was totally frustrated since all I needed was a reprint of the patient's cover page and the nurses were saying, "Oh I'm sorry we can't do that." About an hour after my shift had been over I said, "**** it," and just walked over to the family, said, "I'm sorry, the chart is around here somewhere but it's temporarily missing. Can I retake your information?" And I just wrote down the patient's name and age and then I just started rewriting the H&P on a blank sheet of paper. Literally two minutes after I started someone suddenly "found" it - apparently someone had taken the chart, taken it off its clipboard, and placed it on a clipboard behind someone else's chart. Gee isn't it a good thing they found it just then?

I would have ordinarily chalked it up as an honest mistake, but the chart had been totally blank as the attending had not even seen it yet, and there were no notes on it, it hadn't been signed by me or the attending, and there were no discharge papers on it. I was extremely annoyed as A) the nurse and some of his colleagues had been implying they could either make my life easier or harder; and, B) I could think of no particular reason why anyone would break down a completely new patient's chart and then place it behind another patient's paperwork.

****ing nurses... the worst thing is I'm on good terms with almost all of them and I think only the one nurse was behind it. Oh well, at least it was a whole different team today and all the nurses I'm friends with didn't catch me being pissed off and angry. I wonder if there's a good way to show my appreciation to that particular nurse for his little joke

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