You should have heard me last night, when the day nurse told me that, in his personal opinion, the bedside Doppler was sufficient. Oh, no, he did NOT know to whom he was speaking!

My response:

"WRONG! Dr. Hasney was very specific with me & stated that the intraoral Doppler was to be used every 2 hours to check the patency of the newly-grafted blood vessels. If the vessels fail, the graft fails. You don't want to be responsible for that, do you? If you don't want to do your job, honey, I am SURE I can find someone else who WILL!"

I got the stinkeye.

When the docs did the next rounds, the nurse was in the room & I spoke up & asked about 2-hour Doppler checks. Dr. Freeman said I was right & that tomorrow the schedule would be 4-hour checks.

Then I gave An, the day nurse, the stinkeye.

Then it was time to hassle the residents & get them to take out the JP drain on the left side because it was not draining anything and had not for 2 days...

contd

The residents LOOKED at me as if thinking "How dare she speak?"

I continued, "The thing is like teats on a bull - useless. Either get it functioning or get it out of him. As it is, it's nothing but a hazard because it keeps getting caught in all the cardiac leads, stomach tube, implanted Doppler, and IV."

Then their eyes got big as teacups & one guy's mouth fell open!

They removed the useless JP drain, though. (tee-hee!)

I worked in hospitals for 30 years. You gotta take those residents down a peg or two at every opportunity, and remind them they're still human, lest their egos risk of overinflation. 😉

I have never seen this in other countries; it appears to be an American phenomenon.

I was much pleased when the ENT specialist came in today & chatted with me as if I were a colleague... He had brought an "end cap" to cap Wayne's trach & said if he was oxygenating well & breathing comfortably, after 24 hours, they will remove the trach & close it.

Love little v