Wow. 6 Hours down the toilet...

[Shenanigans, RN]

Okay so this is my annoyed "I will know better or go to Google" next time rant.

I was on the ward and the consultant had come up and told me about a pt he'd just seen and had perscribed a stat dose of some drug and after I gave it IV she could d/c. So pretty straight foward. I went to the drug room and couldn't find it, being a new grad I figured it must have a different name, or be somewhere I haven't seen yet. But the other nurse and charge nurse on didn't even know what the drug. So I went across to the other ward on our floor, and they had none and didn't even know what it was. It wasnt' listed in our drug book guide thing.

I faxed the chart down to pharmacy thinking it must be an odd drug kept down there and not on our happy ENT/Eye ward. They confirmed they had it.

Then I rung up Pharm. after an hour to see where it was as the pt was keen to get out and her husband had shown up, they said it's done and they'd send it up now, like right now. But after 20 minutes and no sign of it, I rung again and asked if I could send an orderly down to get it, they said fine. So I rung orderlies and got one of them to go down. Then orderlies rung me up saying Pharm said they had no idea what the hell I was talking about.

It was a Saturday. We are a small hospital compared to big American ones. Pharm closed at midday on weekend and I talked to each of the three different staff on in pharm that day! So then I rung pharm again and said "hey, what's going on?" they said no Orderly had shown up. So I rung orderlies and was told "oh, they're already been there, gotten all the drugs and are doing the rounds". So I waited, then again I rung and said "what's up?" Oh, I was told, it might be on a different ward by accident... so rung that ward, they hadn't even seen the orderlies.

At this point it had been about 4 hours and I asked my charge what I should do, she said ring Duty Manager and get them to sort it out. So DM rung Ph and ords and then I was re-rung by the hospital phone operator passing on a message that it was all sorted and expect the drug in 5 minutes. IT didn't show.

My charge then told me to ring the clinical resource nurse, who's like our last port of call, after recounting the antics and how the pt was really, REALLY annoyed and wanted to go and was willing to self-d/c - which would be REALLY bad. CRN said she would ring after hours pharamcist because the phrm was now shut.

Five minutes later I get a call saying rude things about who perscribed the drug as the name they used wasn't used in New Zealand! Ever! And we actually had it on our ward under another name!

Hehe.

So there was a good 6 hours down and one angry pt who almost walked out the door without her stat dose of eyeball antibotics!!

But its all the lies from Pharamcy and Orderlies that really got me!!

[oramar]

This kind of circus happens in every country not just where you are. I feel for you. Been there done that.

[Flare, ASN, BSN]

that falls under live and learn. Now, knowing that your weekend pharmacy has such problems, I would have (after having the orderly not show up to the pharmacy) asked another nurse on the floor to cover my patient, claaed the pharmecy and told them i'd be down in 2 minutes for the drug and to please have it ready. Sure, it takes you off the floor for a few minutes, but saves you time in the long run by not having to spend your entire day on the phone tracking down a med.

[CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN]

So what was is??

[Shenanigans, RN]

From what I could deciper of the writing the name the doc used was Rocephrin or something simpliar, I can't remember the actual name we used it as, but it was like cerfor... somethign or rather.

[CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN]

Rocephin or Ceftriaxone.

[Shenanigans, RN]

Rocephin or Ceftriaxone.

Bingo.

[tryingtohaveitall]

This is slightly OT, but too funny not to share.

Yesterday I got a call to go pick up a kid from an outlying hospital with an infection. On the sheet from our comm center, the woman wrote that the patient had received "650 mg Cefretgum". For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what med they had given the patient. When I got report from the outlying hospital, it turns out the kid had received Ceftriaxone.

[Medic09, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

Rocephin or Ceftriaxone.

Very common med here in the US.

So, what is it in New Zealand?

Was the prescribing physician not from NZ then?

It is very common for a drug to live by different names in different countries. The paracetamol that I knew in Israel is acetominophen in the US. It is sometimes a bit difficult to locate the different identities. Better to call the physician and ask them directly. And, of course, some drugs are not available/approved in all countries.