And So I Cried

Have any of you felt so angry that you cried? Well, I ended up in tears today after work.

At about 5.30pm, I was still in my own ward trying to sort out an ascitic tap and pleural aspiration, when a SHO from plastics phoned the ward. She asked to speak to one of the medical staff. So, I answered the call. The SHO asked me to review one of the patients in her ward who was going for a skin graft tomorrow. I told her that all my seniors have left the building (it is already 5.30pm!). She insisted that someone needs to see the patient to decide whether or not this patient is medically fit enough for his skin graft, and whether or not he requires a blood transfusion. The patient was last seen 2 days ago by my consultant.

As far as I know, I have only met this patient once, because he was transferred to plastics for management of his skin infection the following day. I do not know what has been happening to him after that. I am aware that this patient is being cared by both the plastics and medical team.

I informed the SHO that I am only the junior house officer and if she wanted a senior review, she would need to page the on-call medical SHO. She cheekily said, "You have to page the SHO, because I do not know this patient that well." hmm....excuse me? Aren't you the person who is going to perform the surgery on this patient? "Well, to be honest, I do not know him very well either. I have only met him once, and I do not know of his progress thus far," I answered. Again, she insisted that I should page the on-call SHO to review the patient. "Right ok," was my answer.

2 hours later.....after I have sorted my ward out, I decided that it is not appropriate to contact the medical SHO on-call, as he totally does not know the patient...and by right, it should be my seniors that review the patient. So I thought I would just pop up into the ward to find out what the main issues were with the patient and if possible, try to sort them out.

At the ward, I looked into the patients notes and found that someone has spoken to the medical SHO about the patient, and a plan was in place. The patient was to get his 2 units of blood transfusion. So I told the nurses that they should proceed with the plan. And just as I was about to leave, the telephone in the ward rang, and it was the plastics SHO on the phone. She asked to speak to me.

"Right, first I was told this patient was for a transfusion. Then, someone told me that patient is NOT for a transfusion, and now you're telling me that patient should get the transfusion. So which one is it?" said the SHO.

"I do not see anywhere in the notes that stated that patient is not for a transfusion...so it would be wise to follow what the medical SHO has written down, ie, to transfuse."

"Right ok. You medical people always see the patient and do not do anything for them."

"If you are not happy with our treatment, please speak to the consultant about it."

"Now, can you crossmatch this patient then?"

"Err...no."

"Well, this patient has joint care and I am NOT your house officer. You do not need to ask the nurses to phone me up and ask me to crossmatch the patient."

"Neither am I your house officer. I never did ask the nurses to contact you about that. They did it themselves.."

"Fine. But I am totally swamped...so busy. You have to crossmatch the patient. You medics just leave everything for us to do."

"But the patient is in your own ward?! You wanted to know whether you can transfuse him...and I said ok. And now you want me to send a crossmatch sample?"

The SHO kept ranting away about how taking the blood sample is my job and releasing her anger at me. She was bloody rude. You know, she is on-call...and I am not. Why do I have to do her jobs?!

At the end, I know I was losing the battle, and I just said, "Fine ok," and slammed the phone down even before she could say anything further. I told myself to take a deep breathe and just take the blood sample at 7.45 pm!

After that, I left the ward....and mumbled to myself, "Fucking bitch." I felt so angry at the way she spoke to me, trying to sound all high n mighty and so bloody cheeky!!! I was very angry until I cried. It wasn't so much that she was being rude to me...it was more of the fact that she was just being so unfair.