Set 2 of Night On-Calls

Remember I said that I have to do 3 sets of night calls? Well, I just started my 2nd set yesterday.

Tuesday night was busier than Monday night. On Monday, I had to deal with a nurse who kept pestering me to do things which could be done in the morning by the day staff. For example, she asked me to chase a patient's Doppler ultrasound result, who is being treated as having a DVT, ie, patient is already on subcutaneous injections of dalteparin. Now, what I do not understand is, why are you calling me at 3 am in the morning, to chase up the result of the scan? Patient is already having treatment for DVT, so whether or not the patient has a DVT, is definitely not as urgent as a patient who is having a haematemesis.

Anyway, after being pestered twice by that really irritating nurse, I decided to look up the computer to obtain the report. Hah! Believe it or not, patient has not even gone for the Doppler scan!!! I told her right in her face, "Look, patient hasn't even had his scan." She looked blank and said, "Oh sorry, it was handed over to me that patient went for it." hmm...yeah right.

Last night, a middle-aged woman was desaturating to about 71% on 35% oxygen. and developed frank haemoptysis. She has a background of pulmonary fibrosis, and was admitted with possible pneumonia or a pulmonary embolus. She was and still is under treatment for both. Anyway, I told the nurse to give the patient double jet oxygen. To my horror, they could not find a proper tube to do that, therefore, the patient had to make do with just a nasal cannula and an oxygen mask, which obviiously does not maximise the oxygen delivery compared to a proper double jet oxygen kit.

At the same time, I wanted to check the lady's arterial blood gases (ABG) and asked the nurse where do I find the ABG kit. She pointed to a cupboard. I searched the entire cupboard, but could not find any. I asked her where do they stock the kits up, and she said she'll look it up in the store for me. She came back a few mins later without any ABG kit. I decided to go to the next ward, just right opposite to get one instead. Again, there wasn't any around! WTF?! Both ward are RESIPIRATORY wards, and if you don't even have an ABG kit, how could you possibly be a respiratory ward?! This was really bad and I was quite annoyed to be honest. It wasted my time, walking to the wards upstairs to find the kit.

Oh well, night calls are always peculiar. I need to eat something now before I leave. Ciao!