Just a small anecdote that happened when working at the National Neurological hospital in central London - it's the most prestigious neuro hospital in the country.
Anyway, my friend made the headlines of the local tabloids because we were both working there as temp nurses, and we'd only worked a few shifts before, but the surgeon was used to the nurses automatically getting his cup of tea, but as we were new there, had no idea. But he didn't tell me to get the tea (maybe because I was a guy) but he asked my friend (who was female) where his cup of tea was.
She politely told him she was there to fetch his tea for him.
The doctor didn't exactly complain, well, nothing official, but he did speak to the charge nurse, who did excused the temp nurses actions and had a quiet word with her.
My friend wasn't happy about this, moaned about it to her friends outside of work, one of whom happened to work in the newspaper business, and suddenly her story is on the front page of the paper.
Macawake, if you or anyone else wishes to engage in a discussion about what my situation was or was not, or what I should have done or should not have done, based on no facts about my situation provided from me, feel free to do so. This thread is actually about "fetching the doctor's tea."
This thread is about the ramblings of a delusional mind so it's actually still on track.
Macawake, if you or anyone else wishes to engage in a discussion about what my situation was or was not, or what I should have done or should not have done, based on no facts about my situation provided from me, feel free to do so. This thread is actually about "fetching the doctor's tea."
Right. It's about nurses being asked, told or expected to fetch tea for physicians.
You made a post about a doctor not taking your call due to being on break. Your subsequent post made me think that this somewhat upset you since you mentioned that you don't think that putting your tea break before the patient's needs constitutes patient-centered care. To me it didn't seem to relate directly to nurses fetching tea for physicians, it seemed like you wanted to share your opinion on something of importance to you.
The only reason why we don't have all the facts is because you've chosen not to share them. That's your right but you'll have to realize that without all pertinent details your account doesn't make much sense to most of us. To me it's either an emergency, or it isn't.
Anyway, never mind. It's not really important. I only posted this to try to explain how I perceive the whole thing.
If it's that possibly emergent, that's what EDs are for. Our clinic closes for lunch. No staff is available to triage. Sometimes the entire clinic closes for the day for a retreat. If someone has a potentially adverse outcome in the making, that's what hospitals are for, not clinics.
I've never heard of a clinic without a physician on call all the time, though.
I've never heard of a clinic without a physician on call all the time, though.
I haven't heard of one that DID! Not talking about when the provider is on vacation, and someone else is covering for specified days, but talking about a simple BREAK in the day during which a provider is unreachable for minutes at a time.
When I call my provider's office, and it's during their lunch break (a solid hour, btw, in which they most certainly are closed and the answering service is on duty), I have a choice to either call back later, NOT call back later, or follow the directive from the answering service that any emergency that cannot wait until the staff returns from lunch should have that patient heading to a hospital emergency department.
Is it just me, or does anyone else wonder if nursingaround's random stories are chapters from the books confessions of a male nurse and confessions of a school nurse by micheal alexander (pseudonym)?
With respect, knowing nothing about the facts of the situation I mentioned, as you were not present, all you and others can do is conjecture. None of you know the particulars of the situation I referred to, as I did not mention them. So, saying x should have been done, or Y should have been done, or x was the situation, or y was the situation, is futile. No-one apart from me knows the details of the situation I was in. Do people really want to continue to tell me how I should have acted in a situation which they have no knowledge of, where they do not have full information, and where they were not even present?
Susie, with respect, this still does not explain the situation so that we could agree that yours was quite an unusual circumstance that required the provider to drop everything (tea, toilet, whatever) and rush to the phone. While I understand that you might wish to keep the details private, YOU must certainly understand that what you have presented as a scenario (without pertinent facts that you believe change the ENTIRE viewpoint of the situation) STILL seems quite unreasonable.
Perhaps, as you said, there is something so very bizarre in your situation that required a complete change of thinking on how we'd (the nurses here) would view it. Honestly, though....I really WOULD have to say that anything you (as a patient) could possibly be calling about either CAN wait until the break is over (and you should have done so) or it CAN'T wait...and you should have sought out emergency care.
So yes....a situation either IS an emergency, or is NOT an emergency. No, it isn't "another category". Can it wait fifteen minutes, a half hour? NOT emergency. CAN'T wait until the fella returns from the toilet? TRUE emergency.
You can insist that we are all wrong in our assessment of the situation because we don't know the particulars of YOUR story. Ok. But that doesn't mean we are wrong...nor that your possession of the secret facts changes how this was or should have been handled at all.
Susie, with respect, this still does not explain the situation so that we could agree that yours was quite an unusual circumstance that required the provider to drop everything (tea, toilet, whatever) and rush to the phone. While I understand that you might wish to keep the details private, YOU must certainly understand that what you have presented as a scenario (without pertinent facts that you believe change the ENTIRE viewpoint of the situation) STILL seems quite unreasonable.
Perhaps, as you said, there is something so very bizarre in your situation that required a complete change of thinking on how we'd (the nurses here) would view it. Honestly, though....I really WOULD have to say that anything you (as a patient) could possibly be calling about either CAN wait until the break is over (and you should have done so) or it CAN'T wait...and you should have sought out emergency care.
So yes....a situation either IS an emergency, or is NOT an emergency. No, it isn't "another category". Can it wait fifteen minutes, a half hour? NOT emergency. CAN'T wait until the fella returns from the toilet? TRUE emergency.
You can insist that we are all wrong in our assessment of the situation because we don't know the particulars of YOUR story. Ok. But that doesn't mean we are wrong...nor that your possession of the secret facts changes how this was or should have been handled at all.
Respectfully again, I did not explain any of the facts and the details of the situation. So neither you nor anyone else on this thread has any information whatsoever about the situation I referred to. I did not say there was anything bizarre about the situation; in fact I did not say anything about it. You can conjecture that there was no emergency; you can conjecture that there was an emergency; you can conjecture that I should have done x; you can conjecture that I should have done y. You can conjecture that the interaction that I said took place was reasonable; you can conjecture that it was unreasonable. Without factual information, which I declined to provide, all you are dealing with is your ideas about what may or may not have happened. Ideas are not facts.
Its been my experience that if you call your PCP after hours or you cant be seen immediately, there is no way he/she is going to diagnosis or treat over the phone- you'll be sent to the ED. I also believe that those in countries with socialized medicine tend to understand waiting to be seen whereas US pts expect immediate results. Check your hospital's quality reports and the #1 (far and away above #2) source of complaints will be ED wait times.
I haven't heard of one that DID! Not talking about when the provider is on vacation, and someone else is covering for specified days, but talking about a simple BREAK in the day during which a provider is unreachable for minutes at a time.
When I call my provider's office, and it's during their lunch break (a solid hour, btw, in which they most certainly are closed and the answering service is on duty), I have a choice to either call back later, NOT call back later, or follow the directive from the answering service that any emergency that cannot wait until the staff returns from lunch should have that patient heading to a hospital emergency department.
Yeah, I've only had to use the on call physician on nights and weekends when I'm questioning if I need to go to the ED. They always say it can take up to an hour for a call back.
Its been my experience that if you call your PCP after hours or you cant be seen immediately, there is no way he/she is going to diagnosis or treat over the phone- you'll be sent to the ED. I also believe that those in countries with socialized medicine tend to understand waiting to be seen whereas US pts expect immediate results. Check your hospital's quality reports and the #1 (far and away above #2) source of complaints will be ED wait times.
That's not been my experience. I have chronic medical issues and my providers know me well and usually trust my judgement. They'll usually find ways to get me through the weekend until I can be seen Monday if I'm having issues.
AcuteHD
458 Posts
This thread is about the ramblings of a delusional mind so it's actually still on track.