Minor rant here. Sick people don't take days off. We all know this, yet the support staff and techs in our hospital seem to view this differently. Often, they have some of the MDs protecting their reluctance to coming in on days like today, something I don't rightly understand. What the rational people in our field understand is that on-call does not equal off work. Some people, however, fail to grasp this.
Nurse: "Radiology was wondering if the ultrasound could wait until tomorrow?"
Me: "No."
Nurse: "Well, the tech they have to call in is out on the lake."
Me: "Are they out of gas?"
Nurse: "I doubt it."
Me: "Well then, tell him to pull the skier to shore and get to work."
In short, I have no tolerance for this. If you're on call, you're not on the lake. If you want weekends and holidays off, go work for the government.
#gettowork
7 comments:
Thank you. As a nurse this always bugs me too. You went to nursing school how many years and didn't realize this job required working holidays and weekends ? The people we take care of don't want to be in a hospital or nursing home for the holiday either. At least we get to go home after our shift.
Wow. I'm surprised the tech wasn't reprimanded for that. If you're on call you have to be sober and less than one hour from the hospital, correct? I'm floored by some people's attitudes towards call.
This happens ALL the time. No idea how it got started, but I've been making sure it ends. I was quite an ass yesterday, I think I called in about five people: MRI, ultrasound, echo, speech therapy, case manager.
Add me to list of people who also find this annoying. What also drives me nuts is when the radiologist says "Yeah, sounds like this can wait to the morning, I'm not going to call in the ultrasound tech for this". Oh really? You're going to make that call from your arm chair on the other side of the hospital. If you want to come down to the ED to evaluate the patient yourself and THEN make that call, fine, but until I see your pasty white skin in our department, the tech is coming in.
As a patient with many health conditions that often can't wait until tomorrow this is upsetting. I know that the main hospital I use has a policy that when your on call and have the type of job that you have to come in when called upon you have to be able to get there within 30 minutes. Thank you for being a patient advocate.
Flip side, from someone who works FT and carries a beeper.... There are protocols for what we can be called in for, and callback time varies 30-60 min depending ono what is going on. Doc doesn't like the lab time available on Monday? Not good enough reason to call me in on Sunday for a routine case. Test that won't make a difference in treatment if done 24 hours later? (Many nuc med and MRI studies...). Nope- not good enough to call folks in. We don't get time off for being called in- its OT, which leaves is tired the next morning Yes it's part of the job. And when it's a valid call back honestly everybody runs in. But call sucks, and abuse of call teams (which is rampant for MD convenience) really sucks. And honestly, many times the people ordering the tests order the WRONG test, so having the cardiologist or radiologist approve it first makes sense so TWO teams don't get called in, which delays treatment. Lazyness is not ok. But call teams are people too.
Ha! I find this is the case with most DOCTORS, especially in private facilities! Heaven help me if I have to consult a physician on a holiday...
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