No Touchy! NOOOO TOUCHY!
Seriously, what is up with my patients lately? Several of them have thought it's ok to lay a hand on my shoulder like we're buds or something. YOU ARE ALL SICK PEOPLE AND I DO NOT WANT YOUR GERMS! STAHP IT!
One guy wanted to go out and get some air. Now we have a door to outside literally right next to ours. Problem is you can't get back in. But I'm right here to let him back in. Well I'd been told by the floor that the pt was extremely non-compliant and had been getting food from the vending machine (which is probably why his glucose was stupidly high) so I really didn't want him wandering around. Aside from that, I was by myself and it's my responsibility to keep track of him while he's in my department.
But he's apparently claustrophobic sitting in the middle of a hallway and reeeeaaaalllllyyyyyy needs to get some air.
Then my coworker gets in and before I can tell her what's what, she agrees that he can step out for some air (and by "some air" they generally want to go smoke). And you know how when your buddy does something dumb and you give him that little smack with the back of your knuckles? Guess what Mr Fresh Air did. Complete with that little smirk since he got his way. Quite frankly he's lucky he didn't get beaned with the (empty) food tray I happened to be carrying at the time.
If you'd'a told me, I could have fixed it
Got called in for a GI bleed scan. Not long after I clocked (back) in and got everything set up for that, the floor called and wanted a lung scan. Super. Now the bosses have been on this kick lately to make sure our patients know we're "listening" to them. And we have to use that word. Something about patient satisfaction scores or some such which I'll rant more about shortly.
So anywho, I of course get both patients at the same time. And since it's a callback, I'm there alone. So I draw Mr GI Bleed's blood to tag and in the meantime try to get Ms Lung Scan done. I specifically told Mr GI Bleed that I was going to be in the back starting another patient, but if he needed anything I'd hear him. I also asked him repeatedly if he was warm enough. The PTBs tend to keep our department a few degrees warmer than absolute zero, so most people want a blanket. He kept insisting he was fine.
Now our GI Bleed protocol is a solid two hours of imaging. Bleeds can be intermittent after all. Luckily (?) for him, his scan was positive after one hour. So he was there less time than I quoted him, even with the half hour I spent trying to get ahold of a radiologist. And I took him to the bathroom twice and took him back up to his room because transport was taking too long. All the while letting him know when I had to grab something from another room, that I'd be right back, asking if he was warm enough, and juggling the demon possessed scanner for Ms Lung Scan.
Come to find out a few days later that Mr GI Bleed complained that he was cold and that I left him out in the hall forever. If he'd asked for another blanket, I would have given him one. Wait times I can't really do anything about. It takes as long as it's going to take and I can't fudge it. Not for a bleed.
That's nice. But I can't do anything about it
Mr Fresh Air also spent an inordinate amount of time complaining about abdominal pain. And being overly whiny about it. Now, I don't doubt that his stomach hurt. In fact, that was why we were doing the exam. There's just two things wrong: firstly, pain meds will interfere with our test and secondly, I do not have the letters RN or MD after my name, so I don't have access to the good drugs. There is literally nothing I can do about it other than offer a sympathetic ear and even that was wearing thin with Mr Fresh Air because I was still contemplating whacking him with that tray.
Can't really do anything about that either
Last quarter's patient satisfaction scores are in. Hooray. *waves sarcasm flag* In general ours were pretty good. But we scored really crappy in a few areas. Things like wait times, "listening" to pts, communicating delays, and explaining exams. That last one I call BS. We all explain in great detail what we're doing and we repeat it along the way. The problem is people don't listen, don't understand and a lot of them don't bother to either. And we're always going to get dinged on wait times. It's the nature of the modality. We're relying on the body's natural processes and that takes time. And if we communicated every time the NPs took forever to call us back or when we can't get ahold of a rad, we'd never get any work done. We're generally pretty good about letting pts know when things get REALLY backed up. Yet those things are our fault on surveys. And just because we're not looking at you doesn't mean we're not listening. We're probably scribbling down the ten thousand things you've told us about your medical history.
Registration got dinged, too, which doesn't shock me because a few of them are idiots and those are the ones who seem to always be working. I've seen it take over an hour to get someone registered and brought up to radiology. And we generally don't get any communication about what's going on. Sometimes it's a problem with the order or there is no order. Which would be nice to know about since it's going to be our fault anyway.
Seriously, what is up with my patients lately? Several of them have thought it's ok to lay a hand on my shoulder like we're buds or something. YOU ARE ALL SICK PEOPLE AND I DO NOT WANT YOUR GERMS! STAHP IT!
One guy wanted to go out and get some air. Now we have a door to outside literally right next to ours. Problem is you can't get back in. But I'm right here to let him back in. Well I'd been told by the floor that the pt was extremely non-compliant and had been getting food from the vending machine (which is probably why his glucose was stupidly high) so I really didn't want him wandering around. Aside from that, I was by myself and it's my responsibility to keep track of him while he's in my department.
But he's apparently claustrophobic sitting in the middle of a hallway and reeeeaaaalllllyyyyyy needs to get some air.
Then my coworker gets in and before I can tell her what's what, she agrees that he can step out for some air (and by "some air" they generally want to go smoke). And you know how when your buddy does something dumb and you give him that little smack with the back of your knuckles? Guess what Mr Fresh Air did. Complete with that little smirk since he got his way. Quite frankly he's lucky he didn't get beaned with the (empty) food tray I happened to be carrying at the time.
If you'd'a told me, I could have fixed it
Got called in for a GI bleed scan. Not long after I clocked (back) in and got everything set up for that, the floor called and wanted a lung scan. Super. Now the bosses have been on this kick lately to make sure our patients know we're "listening" to them. And we have to use that word. Something about patient satisfaction scores or some such which I'll rant more about shortly.
So anywho, I of course get both patients at the same time. And since it's a callback, I'm there alone. So I draw Mr GI Bleed's blood to tag and in the meantime try to get Ms Lung Scan done. I specifically told Mr GI Bleed that I was going to be in the back starting another patient, but if he needed anything I'd hear him. I also asked him repeatedly if he was warm enough. The PTBs tend to keep our department a few degrees warmer than absolute zero, so most people want a blanket. He kept insisting he was fine.
Now our GI Bleed protocol is a solid two hours of imaging. Bleeds can be intermittent after all. Luckily (?) for him, his scan was positive after one hour. So he was there less time than I quoted him, even with the half hour I spent trying to get ahold of a radiologist. And I took him to the bathroom twice and took him back up to his room because transport was taking too long. All the while letting him know when I had to grab something from another room, that I'd be right back, asking if he was warm enough, and juggling the demon possessed scanner for Ms Lung Scan.
Come to find out a few days later that Mr GI Bleed complained that he was cold and that I left him out in the hall forever. If he'd asked for another blanket, I would have given him one. Wait times I can't really do anything about. It takes as long as it's going to take and I can't fudge it. Not for a bleed.
That's nice. But I can't do anything about it
Mr Fresh Air also spent an inordinate amount of time complaining about abdominal pain. And being overly whiny about it. Now, I don't doubt that his stomach hurt. In fact, that was why we were doing the exam. There's just two things wrong: firstly, pain meds will interfere with our test and secondly, I do not have the letters RN or MD after my name, so I don't have access to the good drugs. There is literally nothing I can do about it other than offer a sympathetic ear and even that was wearing thin with Mr Fresh Air because I was still contemplating whacking him with that tray.
Can't really do anything about that either
Last quarter's patient satisfaction scores are in. Hooray. *waves sarcasm flag* In general ours were pretty good. But we scored really crappy in a few areas. Things like wait times, "listening" to pts, communicating delays, and explaining exams. That last one I call BS. We all explain in great detail what we're doing and we repeat it along the way. The problem is people don't listen, don't understand and a lot of them don't bother to either. And we're always going to get dinged on wait times. It's the nature of the modality. We're relying on the body's natural processes and that takes time. And if we communicated every time the NPs took forever to call us back or when we can't get ahold of a rad, we'd never get any work done. We're generally pretty good about letting pts know when things get REALLY backed up. Yet those things are our fault on surveys. And just because we're not looking at you doesn't mean we're not listening. We're probably scribbling down the ten thousand things you've told us about your medical history.
Registration got dinged, too, which doesn't shock me because a few of them are idiots and those are the ones who seem to always be working. I've seen it take over an hour to get someone registered and brought up to radiology. And we generally don't get any communication about what's going on. Sometimes it's a problem with the order or there is no order. Which would be nice to know about since it's going to be our fault anyway.
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