Sunday, June 28, 2009

MJ Follow-Up

Thank you all for your comments on Michael Jackson's death impacting my patients.

To briefly touch on my only other professional encounter of this insane sort, in 1997 I was taking call for an Epilepsy Monitoring Unit. The night nurse was named Sue and, while a good nurse, she was unusual to say the least.

Anyway, one night I'd dozed off at home in bed, and was woken by Sue.

Dr. Grumpy: "This is Dr. Grumpy."

Sue: "This is Sue, in the EMU. She's dead."

Dr. Grumpy: "Oh my God! Who? Mrs. McFadden in room 3?"

Sue: "No. Princess Diana."

Dr. Grumpy (still a bit drowsy): "Is that the lady in room 4? I thought she went home yesterday."

Sue: "No, Princess Diana, ya know, the British royal family and all. She died in a car crash."

Dr. Grumpy: "You paged me at nearly midnight to tell me this?"

Sue: "I think it's important."

Dr. Grumpy: "Are the patients okay?"

Sue: "Yes, I haven't told them yet."

Dr. Grumpy: "Please don't and let them sleep. Good night, Sue."

8 comments:

ShrinkingDoc said...

Once again, thanks for a good laugh. Night nurses can be a different breed sometimes. Some of them don't seem to realize that on-call staff are trying to sleep at night because they work the next day.

Night nurses, please don't flame me. I love you guys, even the quirky ones. I just used to learn their quirks and try to predict their funky calls and deal with them before I went to bed. Not all night nurses do this. On-call staff want and need to be called for true problems, urgencies, and emergencies. They just don't want to be notified of celebrities deaths UNLESS THEY'RE UNDER THEIR CARE.

The Bus Driver said...

omgzorz... billy mays infomercial king died!!!!!!


hehe.

pharmacy chick said...

Bus Driver: page Dr grumpy, he will want to know this!

One Nurse said...

HugeMD - I am a night nurse and I so feel for all you on-call docs!! I hate calling in the middle of the night and will do everything in my power to not have to call. And you are so right, many night nurses are very odd. And there are some that will call for every little thing, like maybe a stool softner or tylenol or something crazy.

Grumpy - EMU patients. . . AHHHH!!! My FAVORITE!!! I worked on a unit that had a small video eeg monitoring unit. Maybe 5 beds attached to the neuro unit. I would almost beg to take care of them. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT! I especially like the grid patients. However it was the conversion patients that kept me laughing ALL NIGHT LONG!!!

Unknown said...

You've been taking this kind of abuse for many years now. You really should consider a call service and screen out some of the nonsense. Although it would cut down on the great stories that make us laugh, you'd get more sleep I'm sure.

ERP said...

Wow - at least your RN's keep you informed about the IMPORTANT stuff.

The Bus Driver said...

i would pharmacy chick.. only i dont exactly have dr grumpys pager number so i can page him at an ungodly hour with useless information.

Phathead said...

You wanna page him with useless information? Let him know Janet Jackson is still alive.... every half hour.... for a week. Now that would be fun.

 
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