Stress is where you find it. Practice setting matters not.
An error in any practice setting is stressful. It is much easier to actually
KILL someone in a hospital environment working with potent injectable medications. Don't ever forget that you are much more likely to screw up on a
slow day than a fast one. It isn't the pace of the day which is stressful it is the interruptions. Being able to cope with and recover from interruptions is a skill not taught in school.
You know you have been seriously interrupted when you have (in retail) three technicians tugging at your arm, a doctor on hold and two other lines ringing, a customer leaning over the counter with a complaint while you struggle to check or count work on your bench all at once.
You know you have been seriously interrupted when you have (in hospital)
an ER nurse screaming the phone for her activase protocol, another nurse on line two screaming that the hyperal you made twenty minutes ago is nowhere to be found even though you placed it in the unit refrigerator yourself fifteen minutes ago and you will be in BIG TROUBLE MISTER if that groshon catheter plugs up again and your favorite nurse buddy is leaning in the window with an employee prescription for her sick kid as you hear them paging a code on peds while the fentanyl drip that is due in surgery in five minutes lies waiting in the hood for you to mix.....
In both cases the answer is to slow the hell down, prioritize, and tell the also rans to cool their jets even if you gotta hang up on them to make your point. You can smooth ruffled feathers later....it beats the tar out of looking an angry mother in the eye and apologizing because you screwed up or running up the stairs in a cold sweat hoping you can snag your error before they hang it.
