On call? Funny phone calls.

Specialties Home Health

Published

We have to be on call one night every two weeks or so. I've been up since 3 when I received a phone call from a woman who was very concerned about her husband's temperature.

What is it? I asked

97.8 she said. I said that was normal but thought I may be missing something. She started to get upset with me because of course she knew that was normal, but she was worried about this coming weekend. (This is Monday at 3 am) "It's going to be in the 90s and I'm worried he may get too hot"

Or the dreaded "Catheter is out call" at 11 pm. "When did it come out?" I asked.

"Oh this morning, but we've been busy all day and I thought I better call now"

Sometimes I feel like hitting my head against a wall, really.:banghead:

Vick's Vapor Rub - put some under your nose

and those bad smells just go away.

Good thing we carry Chlorox disinfectant wipes

and gloves.

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Specializes in LTC/hospital, home health (VNA).
I hope you bring your wipes so you can clean up anything that the patient has excreted all over the floor and walls. Bring your Flo Lantern to shine your way!:smokin:

There is nothing like some good poo patrol to help the weekend speed by... :rolleyes: I have actually thought of taking my husband's spotlight (for spotting deer) along to find some of those so "thoughtfully" marked homes - imagine the look of surprise on the poor patient's faces as blinding light floods their homes! That may actually cause some excrement issues :chuckle

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LOL! Just had a mental image of you and the deer lamp going on a code brown alert.

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Specializes in oncology, trauma, home health.

I had to actually go out last night to put that foley in..that poor old man..his privates were swollen beyond belief, had I been in the hospital I would have called a urologist to put it in. My husband and I both work for the same company so he went with me. He tried to cath the guy first, then I did and back and forth we went, it was awful. In the end we just couldn't get it. In the car my husband said "That was like an alien autopsy"

That about summed up the on call night, that and a SP that fell out some poor other guy. I HATE being on call. You work all day, are up most the night, then work the next day, WTH??

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Specializes in LTC/hospital, home health (VNA).

I agree that on-call is not the part of the job that I enjoy. Every time the phone rings and the perky voice says "Hi this is the service.." :no: Thankfully we have a FT on-call nurse that does sun - thurs nights so we just take turns being her backup during the week. We take the weekend call every 5th weekend or so. How about you guys? How often?

I did have a gentleman call once to ask me if I could call the hospital for him to find out how his friend was doing. He kept saying that you are all nurses so just call for me. I had to try to explain to the very HOH man that his friend was NOT my patient and then try to explain HIPPA...that call lasted about 15-20 minutes. He called again during the day and gave my supervisor the same line. Oh well!

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Specializes in oncology, trauma, home health.
I agree that on-call is not the part of the job that I enjoy. Every time the phone rings and the perky voice says "Hi this is the service.." :no: Thankfully we have a FT on-call nurse that does sun - thurs nights so we just take turns being her backup during the week. We take the weekend call every 5th weekend or so. How about you guys? How often?

I did have a gentleman call once to ask me if I could call the hospital for him to find out how his friend was doing. He kept saying that you are all nurses so just call for me. I had to try to explain to the very HOH man that his friend was NOT my patient and then try to explain HIPPA...that call lasted about 15-20 minutes. He called again during the day and gave my supervisor the same line. Oh well!

I KNOW THAT GUY!

We're on call 3x a month..I choose to break it up so I never have a Fri or Sat. But man, I HATE IT..

Last time the answering service called me in the middle of the night..I said hello and the answering gal said "Answering service John Jones called his catheter came out" I said "Oh Sh****" she then laughed and said "I said the same thing when I saw you were on call"

Guess I'm known for being grumpy.

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