I work on a shoulder and elbow surgery floor and occasionally we get plastic surgery patients who are staying overnight come to our floor. (although i'm not sure why...) Well last night was one of those times. General surgery was covering so if we had any problems we were to call them. A resident that none of my co-workers had met before came up to the floor to see the patient and to write insulin orders for her. While he was in the nurses station a code blue was called on a different floor. We heard the announcement and just went along with our business. Then the resident turns to us and says, "What's a code blue?"
We all looked at each other thinking "he's joking right? he has to be joking."
Oh, he was serious. So we told him what it was. He mumbled something about how that's something he'll have to go over with his senior resident and that he just knows it as a 'code'. We all just looked at him like "you're nuts buddy" and he left the floor.
Now it IS general knowledge that a code blue is a medical emergency, correct? You don't need to have any medical background to know that, right? All you need is to watch one hour of a medical drama to know what it means.
I assumed it was a code blue everywhere. My mistake. I know that other situations are called other things, like one hospital I worked at a patient endangerment situation was called code gray, but where I work now they say "Mr. Armstrong to room whatever". Guess I learned something from this too.
Specializes in Hospice, corrections, psychiatry, rehab, LTC.
As said above, every school kid knows what "code blue" is.
I believe that is one reason that one of my former hospitals used a different term for it. Hearing "code blue" panics some people while inciting curiosity in others.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
as far as i know, "code blue" is universal. other codes may vary, but i've never heard a code blue called anything but a "code blue".
maybe the resident was having a most unfortunate brain fart.
i've heard it called "dr. blue", "blue cart", "red cart" (the color of the actual cart), "code a" and "code red", which i always mistook for a fire alarm. but it seems as if that's something that should have been covered in his very first day of orientation -- along with his personal role in a code.
I've heard it called "Code 99," "Team Blue," and "Code Arrest." A nurse I used to work with called it a "Core" (don't think it is spelled that way though) and another worked at a hospital where they simply paged "All Hands" to whatever room. Code Blue seems so universal though...it seems that he should know what you were talking about.
We had a new EMT in town that worked in a system that triaged patients as "Code One," "Code Two," or "Code Three." The first time she gave rasio report to the ER, she, out of habit added, "Code Two" at the end of the report. The ER staff heard, "Code Blue" and had everything set up for a full arrest on arrival...for a patient with abdominal pain due to constipation.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
. . . but it seems as if that's something that should have been covered in his very first day of orientation -- along with his personal role in a code.
definately. and his personal role would have been to scoot like a bunny to the code and then get in the way. i kid, i kid my med school friends.
As others have said - it is not "code blue" everywhere. In fact hospitals use all kinds of different lingo. And the hospitals can be in the same cities. I did clinical at one hospital and when I started working in another, quite a bit of medical jargon was not the same. Confusing at first - hard when people rolled their eyes and looked at you like you were crazy.
The next time you see the poor guy, go shake his hand and tell him you are so so sorry. :redbeathe
Well you would certainly think that is common knowlege, however if he had any doubt, wouldn't you prefer he ask just to clarify, instead of possibly causing someone their life, and like one of the other posters said not all of us watch medical dramas...I'm a big fan of Grey's Anatomy, but I wouldn't assume that show would cross over to the real world..
Just a little tiny observation about the title of this thread Humorous is misspelled. That isn't scary at all though and kind of funny considering this thread. :redbeathe:)
i kid, i kid my med school friends.
fhockeychick504
11 Posts
I assumed it was a code blue everywhere. My mistake. I know that other situations are called other things, like one hospital I worked at a patient endangerment situation was called code gray, but where I work now they say "Mr. Armstrong to room whatever". Guess I learned something from this too.