ok. so i had the nite shift from hell last nite. patients in severe respiratory distress and doctor no where to be found. nice, huh? yes. particularly when one of the patients is in severe congestive heart failure (ie with lungs filled with fluid) because of the actions of other health care professionals. DO PEOPLE THINK B4 THEY ACT? i mean, do they?
i wonder exactly what that nurse was thinking when she blindly followed that doc’s order to increase the elderly heart failure patient’s IV rate to 150 ml per hour. like … HELLO? where, exactly did you train? is that what they teach nurses these day? hmmmm … scary.
so … i desperately wanted to take that girl and shake her and say …HELLO? is anyone home in that pea-sized brain of yours? apparently not. yes, that seemed quite apparent to me when you recounted to me the story of how you blew (ie caused it to burst inside the patient) another patient’s central line** because you didn’t know what you were doing!!!
and then i have to wonder why i need to page the doc 7 times b4 he decides he should do his fucking job! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. so, this is the sort of health care we get when its so-called free? nice. and a great reminder that i gotta get outta here. all in good time … but i mustn’t allow myself to get complacent … i must stick to my plan.
for those of you who don’t know, my plans to move to the southern usa are sort of temporarily suspended while my 10 year old afghan hound is dying. most of my energies have been directed toward that end and so my blogging, etc has been sort of neglected. i’m trying to make a comeback though … love reading all your blogs. you inspire me all. wrt moving south … i’m hoping to visit in the fall and write my NCLEX at that time. we’ll see.
** a central line is a special IV inserted into the vein that leads to the heart … the tip of the central line is very near to the heart’s right atrium
