STAT!

[Davey Do]

In the early '90's, I worked three 12 hour MN shifts at a small community hospital in ER and med surge. I also picked up per diem visits and shifts for an HH agency. The HH agency provided a home infusion IV course for its nurses, which I took.

I've kept journals throughout my 36 year nursing career which contain notes from various multiple situations. Recently, I've been going through some my notes and found them to be rather useless in my retirement.

There is a technique which quite a few artists use which I have termed "Literary Graffiti". Basically, the artist will create a translucent image over the typed or written words using ink, watercolors, or what have you.

I use my old journals as palettes for pictures, the most interesting being to illustrate the situation. My illustrations are much more interesting than my notes which range from factual information to rants.

By now you may be asking, "Where are you going with this, Davey Do, and why did you title this thread STAT! ?" Well, I will tell you:

The right sided creative brain uses a a factual point of reference, travels circumstantially utilizing loose association to gather data for an artistic expression, and returns to create.

I was reading my 1993 journal entry from the infusion course and found some notes from my ER job, and thought of the word stat. There hasn't been a stat situation in my life for some time now. The most important activity I pursue in my life at this time is art.

 

 

It's ludicrous.

Art is never an emergent situation, but creating this image caused me to think of other ludicrous situations, like the time the nurse said to the unit secretary, "Bic pen! Stat!"

Have you ever been in a nursing situation where some said stat over something relatively minor or made a ludicrous mountain over a relatively small mole hill?

Who knows? A cartoon may come out of it!

[Guest 1152923]

Great cartoon Davey Do!  By all means, STAT (Shortest Turn Around Time) continues to be the most misused word in hospitals today; so much so, that it's analogous to the'Little boy who cried wolf'.  Sometimes, you just have to bite your tongue and shake your head at the absurdity of it all.

[Davey Do]

12 minutes ago, morelostthanfound said:

 it's analogous to the'Little boy who cried wolf.

The little boy who cried wolf reminds me of an extremely high maintenance patient on geriatric psych. It would take a hosts of posts to tell all the tales of grief this patient bestowed upon staff. 

This patient was constantly on a 1:1 status, yet still found ways to gain more attention. This patient was diagnosed with an axis II personality d/o and an axis III diagnosis of "pseudo seizures". 

One MN shift, this patient was sitting up in the small dayroom across from the NS and c/o some physical ailment. I did an assessment and discussed my findings and recommendation with the patient, which was really nothing, since I could find no anomalies.

The patient immediately began "seizing", so I did a little sternal rub.

"Hey!" the patient yelled, "Why'd you do that for?! I was havin' a seizure!"

 

[Davey Do]

5 hours ago, Davey Do said:

I was reading my 1993 journal entry from the infusion course and found some notes...

During the infusion course, something must have caused me to recall a situation from my LPN program.

Our instructor, Mrs. G, was going to instruct us on how to give an injection. Previously, she had informed us that her supervisor was going to be present for that portion of the classroom session and admitted to feeling a little nervous.

This is a graphic rendition of the situation:

 

 

           

[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

Not quite the answer you were looking for, but I had a coworker who would ask what the patient's O2 stat was. She was not so bright so when I would say "you want to know their O2 right now?", she never really got it. Sometimes it's fun to work with people that you can make fun of right to their face. (and I'm not JUST mean, I had pointed out that she wanted a saturation or SAT numerous times, then I resorted to making fun)

[Davey Do]

12 hours ago, JBMmom said:

I had a coworker who would ask what the patient's O2 stat was. She was not so bright so when I would say "you want to know their O2 right now?"

Reminds me of the late great Yogi Berra's answer when  someone would ask him what time it was:

"You mean, right now?"

12 hours ago, JBMmom said:

 Sometimes it's fun to work with people that you can make fun of right to their face. 

As Robin Williams' character said in The Dead Poet's Society, "We're not making fun of you. We're having fun near you".

It is always fun to work with others who can take a joke. Being self-deprecating can open up humorous  channels for others who have good boundaries.

[Daisy4RN]

On 8/29/2021 at 8:34 AM, Davey Do said:

Have you ever been in a nursing situation where some said stat over something relatively minor or made a ludicrous mountain over a relatively small mole hill?

We once had a pt in our unit that was a real PITA. He was there for about 3 months because he could not be placed. He was  hoarder and for some reason the hospital let him hoard all kinds of stuff in his room. He literally had about 30 boxes of junk as well as other stuff always piled up on his bed. When he didn't get what he wanted, or a response fast enough, he would literally scream at anyone walking by for whatever his grip was while yelling STAT many times throughout the ongoing screaming rant. I think he was a psych pt that couldn't get placed bc of medical issues. Boy were we glad to see him go. Sometimes a nurse didn't even make it through 1 day with this peach.