This med school stuff

Can seriously make a person a little nuts. Today was a call day. Usually the way it works is that as we admit patients during the evening, the med students are assigned patients to see. After we see our patients, we round with the attending, and if we've picked up enough patients we can generally go home. Now, if we meet our requirement by 8:00pm, we can generally go home when we are done. Today, I got mine done at 6:00pm and we finished rounding soon thereafter. I was so stoked about getting done early. But we got a new resident today. And instead of letting each person leave as they finish their work, she wanted everybody to stay until each student was finished. And of course one student wasn't done... and she seemed to be taking her sweet time as well. So I literally had to stay 3 extra hours for no fucking reason whatsoever. Just standing around with my thumb up my ass.

Thats when the "nuts" part kicked in. My brain really started messing with me. Chastising myself for being so stupid as to go to med school at 32. Considering writing my letter of resignation. Wondering what would happen if I threw that large glass bottle of some unknown narcotic across the ED and just went totally AWOL. It was surreal. I seriously had to Buddha Zen my way out of it. It wasn't pretty, folks.

Oh my friggen' God

SOMEONE (not naming names) acted like I was the HUGEST idiot for mixing up two drugs.

Her: What's Solmeterol?

Me: It's a steriod.

Her: NO its NOT!

Me: Oh. I thought it was similar to Prednisone.

Her: No, Prednisone is Prednisone.

Me: I didn't say it WAS Prednisone. I just thought it was a similar steroid.

Her: No, you're wrong. You should know these things. Solmeterol is a long-acting beta agonist.

Me: Oh, ok. I guess I was confused. I don't know why I thought it was a steroid.

Her: Neither do I.

Later I look it up and realize I was thinking of Solumedrol. Which in my opinion, sounds damn effing close to Solmeterol. WOW. I'm SUCH an idiot first month, third year med student.... getting Solmeterol and Solumedrol mixed up. I should probably drop out of med school asap.

I want her to do it

I've been seeing the same patient on the wards for almost 4 weeks now... and today he finally got to go home. He seems to have gotten pretty attached to me... and I to him. He tells me things he won't admit to the other doctors, and he always asks me to "translate" what the attendings say after they leave. He says he "loves" me (in a "thank you for not letting me die" kind of way) everyday, and offers me lunch and brings me candy. So we have a bond. And... I forgot to mention... he has MASSIVE white coat anxiety. So he literally turns to a nervous wreck whenever any docs enter the room but me.

So on the day of his discharge... (finally!)... he needs to have his central line taken out. The whole team goes into the room and my attending tells him he's good to go as soon as we take out his line. Well, he freaks out and asks the attending who is going to take out his line... and the attending says he'll do it himself.

Well my patient throws a fit and says he only wants me to do it. I was certain my attending would respond with a "Oh no you don't! She doesn't know WHAT the hell she's doing" ... but instead he smiles and agrees. For god's sake I didn't want to tell him I'd never really pulled one before... since he was so nervous anyway. But alas, I pulled it without issue, and managed to act like I totally knew what I was doing. Not sure if I'm a better actress or physician... but overall it was all a success.

On nurses....

I'm sure this post is going to go over like a match on gasoline... but really... I need to vent. So let me preface this venting session with a couple things:

1) I am a HUGE advocate for treating everyone alike, getting along with everyone, and for doing my best to refute stereotypes in the workplace.

2) I have worked in many hospitals (a dozen in several different states) and dealt with 100's of nurses... so my "opinion" isn't based off of 3 nurses in my hospital.

So here's my question. WHAT'S UP WITH THE EFFIN' ATTITUDE?

Do nurses really get treated THAT badly by everyone that they cannot muster a clean slate when they meet new people? Let me throw out a few scenarios here. All different nurses, mind you.

Scenario #1

Me: Hi Nurse 1. I'm Ella, part of Dr. X's team. Are you patient Y's nurse?

Nurse: Maybe. Depends on why you want to know.

Me: (smile... trying to break the ice) Ok, well when you have a chance he'd like to get his nicotine patch.

Nurse: Don't know why you bother. He's just going to rip it off later.

Me: Well, maybe, but he asked me... so I'd like to get him one while he's in the mood for trying.

Nurse: (Very snotty) Well, YOU'RE just going to have to wait.

Me: No prob. Like I said, whenever you get a chance.

Nurse: Well IF I get a chance I will.

Scenario #2

Me: Hi nurse 2. Dr. X is worried about patient Y and he'd like to get a glucose check right now.... I don't mean to rush you... but I think it's pretty important.

Nurse: JESUS CHRIST! Like I don't have anything else to do.

Scenario #3

Me: Hey is that patient Y's chart? Do you mind if I just sneak this note in there real quick?

Nurse: Is this your patient? Why has he been here so long? He needs to go!

Me: Well, he's got (really bad disease X). And he needs daily treatment.

Nurse: Well, I don't feel sorry for him. He does cocaine, right?

Me: Well, his tox screen was positive... but that's not related to the disease.

Nurse: Well, still. We shouldn't be putting so much effort into him.

Me: Well, that's what we do here. Help sick people.

Nurse: Hmpppfh.

Scenario #4

Me: (trying to get some blank progress notes which have been placed near a nurses desk... and I'm not even in the way or near any of her personal space/ things)...

Nurse: What do you need (attitude 10/10 on the bitchy scale)??

Me: Oh, hey, sorry I didn't realize this was your desk. I am just looking for the progress notes.

Nurse: Well this is MY desk.

Me: Oh. Ok. Well Dr. X said this is where they are kept.... but maybe he was confused. Is there some other place I should get them from?

Nurse: Nope.

Me: Well.... ok...

Nurse: Sigh. Well, go ahead.

Me: Big smile on the outside. Dagger of death on the inside.

Scenario #5

Me: Hi Nurse 5 (who is in charge of LTAC placement). I'm Ella. Dr. X was wondering if you know of any LTAC facilities that will do IV meds for 10 days.

Nurse: No.

Me: Well the problem is XYZ. Can you think of any way that we can deal with that?

Nurse: No.

Me: What about Facility X?

Nurse: No

Me: Facility Y?

Nurse: No

Me: I heard they will make special accommodations as long as the patient is ambulatory. Would you be willing to check?

Nurse: No.

And I can give 100 more scenarios like these....