I had one job...
Mar. 30th, 2021 08:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
whitewriterI find that when I am amazingly un-busy, I miss things.
I had one wardable patient, and whomever was the next admission (HDU) would be mine.
For once, after getting 4 admissions from ED the night before-- the impossible happened.
which left me with one wardable pt.
Wardable means 4/24 observations.
wardable means they probably could walk and take care of themselves.
Even better, he wanted to and was happy to, take himself off to the bathroom for a shower whilst I changed his bed- meaning that 25% of my work for the entire night, was completed with very little work on my part by 21:00.
He was for triglyceride levels (fasting bloods) in the morning.
At midnight, he said he was hungry. So I got him a sandwich pack.
At 02:00 I realised "fasting bloods" meant -- no food.
whups.
But they also hadn't specified for how long to be fasting.
So i ask the senior doc. and he's like oh you know at least 12-14 hours.
dude.
So that means, you eat dinner at 19:00
Then you eat nothing, until your blood test at 07:00 the next day.
It was an ICU Doc I had asked, and it was endocrine that wanted the bloods so I could assume they'd be pissed in the morning I'd ruined this kid's bloods -- and his insulin regimen -- because if he was to fast til noon the next day, he'd have to skip breakfast and AM insulin.
Clearly the pt didn't know he had to fast for 12 hours either.
ICU is like eh, they'll sort it out tomorrow. ICU nurses, said Doc are always so happy when they have a patient who can eat, and wants to eat, to feed them they literally fall over themselves to give them food.
Whilst endocrine ward nurses are much tougher and would be "too bad kiddo".
I loathed to inform my pt but at 0730 right before handover i made sure he knew the issue and what "fasting bloods" actually meant. By explaining, you have dinner at 7pm. Then nothing til your blood test. Then you get breakfast and then he was like "oh...."
NESB.(non-english speaking background).
On handover the nurse was like "he's at uni surely his English can't be that bad?"
I just said "anyone can go to uni and pass..."
I had sets of obs, and a few meds to give but that was it .
So I had one job (not let the kid eat) and I basically gave him food.
I had one wardable patient, and whomever was the next admission (HDU) would be mine.
For once, after getting 4 admissions from ED the night before-- the impossible happened.
which left me with one wardable pt.
Wardable means 4/24 observations.
wardable means they probably could walk and take care of themselves.
Even better, he wanted to and was happy to, take himself off to the bathroom for a shower whilst I changed his bed- meaning that 25% of my work for the entire night, was completed with very little work on my part by 21:00.
He was for triglyceride levels (fasting bloods) in the morning.
At midnight, he said he was hungry. So I got him a sandwich pack.
At 02:00 I realised "fasting bloods" meant -- no food.
whups.
But they also hadn't specified for how long to be fasting.
So i ask the senior doc. and he's like oh you know at least 12-14 hours.
dude.
So that means, you eat dinner at 19:00
Then you eat nothing, until your blood test at 07:00 the next day.
It was an ICU Doc I had asked, and it was endocrine that wanted the bloods so I could assume they'd be pissed in the morning I'd ruined this kid's bloods -- and his insulin regimen -- because if he was to fast til noon the next day, he'd have to skip breakfast and AM insulin.
Clearly the pt didn't know he had to fast for 12 hours either.
ICU is like eh, they'll sort it out tomorrow. ICU nurses, said Doc are always so happy when they have a patient who can eat, and wants to eat, to feed them they literally fall over themselves to give them food.
Whilst endocrine ward nurses are much tougher and would be "too bad kiddo".
I loathed to inform my pt but at 0730 right before handover i made sure he knew the issue and what "fasting bloods" actually meant. By explaining, you have dinner at 7pm. Then nothing til your blood test. Then you get breakfast and then he was like "oh...."
NESB.(non-english speaking background).
On handover the nurse was like "he's at uni surely his English can't be that bad?"
I just said "anyone can go to uni and pass..."
I had sets of obs, and a few meds to give but that was it .
So I had one job (not let the kid eat) and I basically gave him food.
