i can spend the whole day talking about frustrating incidents that involved the pharmacy and the clinical lab. incidents and encounters that caused my blood pressure to shoot up and tested my patience.

i will not elaborate on those incidents, because i am aware i have no right to question a system that i have very limited understanding of. why, sometimes, it takes the pharmacy 1-2 hours to send a med is completely beyond my understanding. why, sometimes, it takes more than 3 hours for the clinical lab to process a blood test is also beyond my limited understanding.

needless to say, there are a lot of instances wherein, if the RNs don’t spend time calling, following up, on either a med or a blood draw/test result we end up telling the oncoming RN on shift change that “this med has not been started, this lab has not been drawn, this drip has not been changed, etc etc etc” because lab and pharmacy did not do what they were expected to do, in the expected time frame.

for the most part, i understand reports like that, and cut the outgoing RNs the needed slack, because i know first hand how the whole system sucks. i say the same thing when i have no choice, so it’s really no big deal sometimes.

but, and this is a big BUT: there are nurses who take advantage of this situation and use it as an excuse for literally being incompetent. hate is a strong word, but that’s how i feel towards nurses who literally milk the system. the thing that irritates me most is the fact that the patient loses in this situation. of course, next to that, i equally hate it that i have to suffer the consequences by dealing with other people’s anger.

yesterday, at exactly 1900, when i just finished taking report, i got a call from the doctor following up a result of a patient’s phosphorus level. i told her the blood was not drawn yet, because the med that was ordered to correct the low phosphorus level was not given yet. since the order for blood draw was an hour after the med was given, she knew it was reasonable why the blood was not drawn yet.

in all honesty, i did not blame her when she started lashing out on me. the med was ordered at 1100!

the AM RN, a habitual “i have not given any of these meds because the pharmacy has not sent them yet; the blood is not drawn yet because lab never showed up” kind of guy, was still in the unit when the whole phone conversation took place.

this is not something personal, but i totally hate the way this guy tries to get away with everything just by using a “legitimate” excuse. if i may be so blunt, i will say without flinching that he is the perfect definition of lazy and honestly, that would even be putting it nicely.

anyway, after a lot of instances in the past where i had to deal with angry doctors, disappointed family members, and frustrated patients after taking report from him, it just got too much, and i told him so.

looking back, i wish i could have been more professional by facing him and telling him in a calmer voice that i hated the fact that his laziness was getting so annoying to me and was so unfair to the patients, but i didn’t.

we exchanged unhappy words in the middle of the unit, separated by the ice machine, with a few people listening. no, i didn’t tell him the obvious, that he was just plain lazy, but i told him the list of possible things he could have done, so the med could have been given on time. as expected, he was defensive, and used every excuse in the book to get away with it. tired of listening to him, i called pharmacy to double check, intending to give them a piece of my mind, but kept quiet when i was told the med was sent hours ago. all this time, he was standing there, listening to me and nonverbally saying “they never sent it!” i told him the pharmacy tech said it was already sent hours ago.

just when i was ready to forget the whole blaming game and move on, the gods of irony intervened. i don’t know what moved him, but he started looking around and just before i stepped out of the unit to go to the pharmacy to get a replacement for the missing med, he found the med in question in a tube, sitting in the unit for hours, just like the pharmacy tech said. he wanted to say more, but i had enough. i grabbed the med, went straight to the patient’s room, and gave it.

i regret this now, but i was just too frustrated to face him and at the same time tell him how sick and tired i am of how sloppy he does his job. it didn’t matter that those who heard the exchange knew i was right, i just wish i have been more professional in dealing with him.

how i could have done that when i was boiling with anger, i still have to figure out.

i still don’t understand the whole “there are certain people that just rub you the wrong way” statement, but i do know he not only rubs me the wrong way, but he does it perfectly well too.

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thank you all for your kind words.

to those who drop by here for something more positive, i apologize that this blog has mainly been a whining/ranting space lately. as it turns out, you suffer the consequence of me being unable to afford a professional therapist.

thank you for letting me sit/lie on your couch.