Friday, August 26, 2016
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
A Blog detailing the insanity of my medical practice and the stupidity of everyday life.
Welcome to my whining!
This blog is entirely for entertainment purposes. All posts about patients, or my everyday life, or anything else may be fictional, or be my experience, or were submitted by a reader, or any combination of the above. Factual statements may or may not be accurate. I could be making all this up. I may not even be a doctor. The only true statement on here is that I probably drink more Diet Coke than you do. A lot more.
Singing Foo!
Singing Foo!
Twitter fans- you can follow me @docgrumpy
Cast of Characters:
Annie: My Phenomenal MA
Mary: My Awesome Secretary
Ed: The office fish
Dr. Pissy: The guy I share an office with
Mrs. Grumpy: My Boss (also the world's greatest school nurse)
Frank, Craig, and Marie: The Grumpy Tribe
Garlic and Riley: The Grumpy Dogs
Questions? Comments? Biting sarcasm? Write to: pagingdrgrumpy [at] gmail [dot] com
Note: I do not answer medical questions. If you are having a medical issue, see your own doctor. For all you know I'm really a Mongolian yak herder and have no medical training at all except in issues regarding the care and feeding of Mongolian yaks.
Cast of Characters:
Annie: My Phenomenal MA
Mary: My Awesome Secretary
Ed: The office fish
Dr. Pissy: The guy I share an office with
Mrs. Grumpy: My Boss (also the world's greatest school nurse)
Frank, Craig, and Marie: The Grumpy Tribe
Garlic and Riley: The Grumpy Dogs
Questions? Comments? Biting sarcasm? Write to: pagingdrgrumpy [at] gmail [dot] com
Note: I do not answer medical questions. If you are having a medical issue, see your own doctor. For all you know I'm really a Mongolian yak herder and have no medical training at all except in issues regarding the care and feeding of Mongolian yaks.
86 comments:
Well, yesterday we all sat on the floor for about twenty minutes and played with five beabull (beagle/bulldog) puppies. There were puppies leading each other around by their leashes, puppies trying to eat shoes, puppies upside down in laps. Least productive twenty minutes ever.
One of the things I love about my current position is the relative lack of insanity. However, if you want a gripe, it's the fact that the class I teach run from October to early May, with the final exam in mid to late May. However, we have to have our exams written by the end of January, or thereabouts -- at which point I often have no idea if I'll make it through all the material I want to cover, so I'm wholly guessing about what to put on the exam and hoping that we will actually get to the material that answers all the questions by the end of the year!
I work for the government. You're not ready for that level of insanity.
I don't have a job.
Before I worked in medicine as a PA, I taught health and physical education at the high school level. One of our units was swimming, and students (girls) were always trying to coerce their parents into writing notes excusing them from the unit, ostensibly due to some "problem" but really not wanting to have to mess up their hair during the day.
My favorite? "Please excuse Claire Awl from the pool unit. She just had a hair straightening treatment and cannot get her hair wet for 30 days."
Show me a teen-age girl who would voluntarily refrain from washing her hair for a month.
And yes, parents write crap like this ALL the time. I'm sure Skool Nurse Grumpy experiences this regularly.
I'm locked in a room with 25 six year olds trying to teach them how to read. Most people think that's insane.
Funny you ask that today. I work in HR for a major company. One of my responsibilities is finalizing the new hire's I-9s. This is where the employee must provide 2 valid forms of identification. You would not believe the sheer number of people that do not understand that "valid" implies "not expired" or that we really mean TWO forms of ID.
This week, I had a new hire come with absolutely zero identification. Said that she did not have any identification in original form. She offered to show me a picture of her expired driver's license (which she had lost). I explained federal law requires that you are able to prove who you say you are, and to let me know as soon as she could provide that information.
This started a multitude of text messages from her all day long asking for a chance and if I could overlook the whole id thing. People drive me nuts.
Wanna talk insanity? Let's discuss the "Parent Pick up/Drop off" line at my son's High School.
Never have I ever encountered stupider, more selfish or just plain rude drivers in life. The concept is rather simple. Drive into the school circle, go to the end if you are first car and each car after, drop or retrieve child and move on out. Nope, not here. These jackasses will block you, drop off their kids in mid circle, so precious doesn't have too far to walk, jump the line, make a left turn against the "no left turn" sign or just basically act like they've only been driving since this morning and haven't a clue what they are doing. They honk, they curse you out, curse out school employees and generally make you wish they didn't breed to begin with. How something so simple turns into a cluster fuck daily is beyond me; but hey, what do I know?
I'm a librarian in a public library. Someone brought a typewriter to the library once (recently, like within the past year) and didn't understand why I told her she couldn't use it there.
Because it's loud.
I really didn't want to tell her to stop though. I was just so impressed that someone a) still used typewriters and b) carried it to the library.
I'm a stay-at-home mom with five kids, so all my crazy moments have pretty much been written about in the 87 thousand mommy blogs out there. But school started for three of my kids this week, so only having two kids at home (AND not having a whole bunch of neighborhood kids popping in and out of the house) is feeling *almost* like a vacation!
I think one of the reasons I really love reading this blog is because it reminds me that even in the professional world, there are plenty of crazies to be dealt with, so when my life feels unmanageable, I tell myself that at least I like these crazies! (Although point in your favor, I'm sure you have less butts to wipe...)
Also, this blog gives me something to make conversation with my two doctor brothers-in-law that ISN'T Grey's Anatomy, so there's that...
Ooh-- but here's a story from back when I had a summer temp job in college! I was working the front desk of a large shipping company's corporate headquarters (I loved that job!) and some guy came to pick up a friend who worked upstairs, but the guy parked in a tow-away zone (I think it was reserved for deliveries or something). When we told him he couldn't park there or we would tow his car, he became irate and demanded why HE couldn't park there but some delivery guy could. I tried to explain that it was our company and we got to make the rules, and he promptly used the courtesy phone in the lobby to call 911.
Yup, he called 911 to complain about a parking spot.
When the friend he was picking up came down for his ride, I've never seen someone so angry and embarrassed!
Happy Friday!
I just took a mandated course on Monday. One hour long. Must pass the quiz at the end with 80% and you only get 10 chances. Ok. Its on a system I don't use at all. Haven't used it in the 25 yrs I've been with this company and will never use it because I don't do that type of work. Nope sorry its mandated for every single person in the company to take.
Ok I went through the course and got a 40% on the quiz. Computer asks 'Do you want to review your answers?' Yes I do. Whip out my cell phone and take a picture of every question which has the correct answer indicated. Go through the course again because you can't just skip to the quiz and shocker of all shockers I got 100% the second time around.
So now I'm certified on a system I shall never use and the trainers think I'm really smart. They would be correct. Genius move to use the cell phone. If everyone else that telecommute didn't do the same thing they are morons.
I recently retired. My life is finally sane again.
I second anonymous, working for the government is another level of insanity all together. I can assure you that your tax payer dollars are not well spent.
Unpaid volunteer work? Since my kids play sports for the local school, I figured to support said school through the booster club. If coaches need something that's outside the school budget, they can ask the booster club. We'll raise money for those needs, and everyone's happy. Well, not everyone is happy. The AD threatened the coaches and told them that anyone who accepts a booster club donation without his prior approval would be fired. :O Then he refuses to approve anything!
BTW Is it ironic that I'm reading this from my psych hospital bed?
A patient from a year ago called my office to ask where I sent his blood. He wants to know if he needs a transfusion to replace the two tubes the tech drew. And yes this is a mental hospital.
I work for a state vital records office. Nobody realizes that its staid reputation is totally unwarranted. The paternities turn into episodes of Maury. Sometimes we receive two forms naming a baby with two different fathers because mom filled out one with boyfriend, and husband came by later and filled another one out, unaware. That's a fun phone call. The medical marijuana registry applicants have sent applications with baggies of drugs, or sent envelopes with nothing in them except the envelope adhesive strip. The list goes on.
Annon, at 9:24. Those mandated courses with three to infinity numbers of retakes. They are so crazy. I took several last week. After taking two of them every year for the past 16 years, I barely read anything other than the new screen that said if you miss a question you will be redirected back to the beginning of the section to cover the material again. I thought that was interesting and just started hitting next until each of the embedded questions came up. I answered them all and got through the 45 minute courses in 15 minutes each. As expected 100% on all. No thinking required.
Why are these required for work? They have no usefulness and the people who really should take the courses don't take them and instead have their assistants take it for them.
I work from home as a medical transcriptionist. I got an email from my boss today because I am scheduled to work 10 am to 6:30 pm and last Friday I worked 10:04-6:30. She told me I should have requested PTO for the 4 minutes I was short.
(I work night shift and this happened in the evening) Patient on our ward was being transferred back to ICU (febrile and low O2 sats) earlier this week and the lift got stuck in between floors because the power cord from the bed got jammed in the doors. Nurse, wardsman and patient were stuck for about 15mins before they could get the doors open and help them climb out.
ICU nurse here...too many stories, but the favorite is when a parent of a sick kid told her nurse she was the chief nursing officer at XYZ hospital. I had come from XYZ hospital a year or two previous. I made nice-oh wow, is Jane Smith still there? Stutter, stutter, I was there many years ago. Finally an older nurse got her to admit-she was a CNA 20 years ago. If you're going to lie to the people taking care of your kid, don't get caught!
I spent ~25 years, until about 10 years ago, smacking computers around for my income.
In the mid '90s, before everyone had a laptop or smartphone, I worked for a university. My office was in the basement of the library and next to a rather large computer lab that was for student use.
The office was tiny. It held me, my student minion, and three various computers. It was never intended as an office and had no circulation. (After a year we found out that the office wasn't even hooked into the building's HVAC system!) We had to keep the door open which meant students were constantly streaming by. Now, this could be fun -- in the winter I'd hang candy canes from the doorway with signs saying "Take one!" and sometimes the kids would pop their head in to say thanks.
But it could also be annoying.
The computer lab would get packed during midterm and finals time. Kids would be waiting in line for someone to finish up while (human) monitors tried to make sure nobody was playing games or otherwise goofing off. At other, quieter times, the lab would be closed.
We had a big whiteboard on the wall near the door. We drew a big chart on it and wrote on top MONTHLY DUMBSHIT MONITOR. Every month we'd tally up what kind of stupid requests we got, adding a line for every new addition. One request could hit multiple lines. Typical lines said:
"Open the lab" When it was closed, kids would ask us to open it. We didn't work for the lab people.
"Change for copier" A photocopier was around the corner. It still used coins then.
"Can you fix the phone?" Next to the copier was a phone on the wall which was constantly being torn off.
"Office supplies" (ie. Can I borrow...? Stapler, paper clip, tape, etc.) Pens, no. Anything else, if they asked nicely, usually yes. But they still got tallied on the board.
"Emergency exit" Across from the office was an alarmed emergency exit with a crash bar, which was occasionally used by spaced-out students or thieves.
"Extra Dumbshit" This was reserved for the complete and utter jerks who would freak out if they were told no. Usually they came from...
"You're liars!" Some kids refused to believe I didn't work for the lab. They'd start screaming, demanding that I was REQUIRED to open the lab. Then they'd run off to report me for not doing me "job." The lab people would laugh at them and then tell me about it.
"Wants our computers" Sometimes when the lab was packed full, or closed, someone would ask to use one of the computers in our office. I'd say sorry, but no. Almost always, the student would look dejected, say thank you, and leave.
Every once in a while someone would whine and plead to use one. A very few DEMANDED it. One particular special snowflake I will never forget insisted that "My work is more important than yours, so get up so I can use that computer!"
Outside of the fact that three people could baaarely fit in there, the computers were specially set up so that only a particular group of people could use them.
I wasn't going to explain that to snowflake. All I did was put on my meanest face and loudly growl "GET OUT. NOW!" They got.
I currently work as a copy-editor for a suite of websites that publish stories sent in by people around the world. I'm a Professional Grammar Non-Jew-Hating Fascist. There are stories about that, too, but they're mostly grammar nerd stuff with the occasional WTF.
I work at a behavioral health provider in a non-clinical position (I'm the in-house courier/copy monkey/mailroom.)
Earlier this week we got in a letter from a parent, apparently of a minor client. Cover page talked about some medical specifics, which HIPAA lol no details. Next couple of pages were correspondence regarding said client. Next four pages? Lists of low-income/government-assistance-accepted housing.
Last five pages were the rest of the documentation regarding that client.
Photographs of the papers laid out on a table, like a display. Not readable in any way, shape or form.
"Yep, that sure looks like a lot of paper all right."
My coworker is arguing with her child's school over an epipen. The device expires in 2017, but the prescription label was issued over a year ago. The school considered the device expired as the label is over a year old. My coworker is part time with a high deductible plan and very frustrated the school is requiring a new script to have the rx label to be current.
I'm an optician, working in a retail optical shop. One day a patient - not even a client or ours, mind you - came racing into the store hollering at the top of his lungs. He had put his contact lens disinfecting solution directly into his eyes. Now, the bottle had a bright red tip, and consisted of mostly hydrogen peroxide. And it was smarting. He was screaming that they shouldn't make ANYTHING that couldn't be put into his eyes. My response was "Like motor oil?" He ran out again, and I apologized to the assembled clients for my smart mouth. They all chuckled.
Anon at 10:38. Sounds like you work for the gov't too. The first time I had to take those tests I listened, and then did the test. Each time after that breezed trough the slides and got 90-100. I still had coworkers that would sit and listen to the entire thing, and they were the long 1-2 hour ones. Those were the same people who would read through the huge "this is how we do things" manuals every year, even though only one or two things changed.
As for crazy work stories? I've done urine drug testing for a large part of my career. Didn't see the crazy stuff until I was testing military specimens. It isn't a good party until you pop positive for 5-6 drugs in one sample.
Hey! I'm a mail carrier. Insanity is the norm here.
I am, thankfully, retired...
Pharmacy Manager here. Over the years, I've had plenty of asshattery. Most recently, a woman said she put some of her hyrdocodone tablets in another bottle and they got wet. Wanted to bring them in so I could swap them out for some fresh ones. Right. She was serious, too.
I was a retail pharmacist with a large drug chain.
I was tired of coming to work and having the other pharmacists so frustrated that it seems they can hardly wait to leave, or seeing the techs rolling their eyes and telling me what a day it's been.
I was tired of hearing how prescriptions had been "lost" and no one could find them. I felt embarrassed to realize that once again we have had to fax a doctor, asking him to send us a copy of his rx because we have misplaced the one the patient gave us. Sometimes it seemed as though I worked in the midst of disorganization, chaos, and shrugging shoulders as everyone denied having had anything to do with whatever the problem was.
One day, once again all the [facility] rxs were pushed to the back, and at 4pm there were 20 [facility] rxs waiting to be entered. I entered them. They did not get delivered that night.
I came in to read a note from [other pharmacist] about how the techs don't know why rxs have been returned to the filling station and asking us to leave explicit notes about why something has been returned there. However, the techs don't follow their own request, and leave either no note, or incomplete notes, and fail to pass on to the next tech what needs to be done. The end result: shrugging shoulders.
One day, I made a phone call to clarify an rx, got it clarified, gave it back to [tech] to proceed with and (after she had left for the day) when the patient came in to pick it up there was no record of it because she hadn't done anything with it and it had been left stuffed in with the other unprocessed rxs. If I hadn't been there and recognized what had happened, it would have been just another case of everybody running around with no one knowing anything, and the customers watching us look incompetent once again.
Another day, a rx was entered under the wrong dr's name. I took it back to entry, in the red basket, with a large note stating "wrong dr". When the patient's husband came by, hours later, to pick it up, no one could find it anywhere. Several minutes were wasted, and the suggestion was made that we should just do it up again and look for it later. Turns out it was right where I had left it, still in its basket, now with other papers lying on top of it, where it had been ignored for hours.
I think the thing that bothered me most is that I understand pharmacy to be a profession that can't be practiced in an unorganized way, where no one takes responsibility for their actions and there is no follow-up. In a pharmacy, we need to know where the rxs are, where the hard copies are, who is taking care of something. We need to know that the right drug is in the right bottle.
I am now retired. Thank God.
Ledasmom, as a vet tech I can tell you from personal experience that playing with puppies is all we do, all day, every day. Not.
@Anonymous in HR: What's this about two forms of ID for the I-9? I just checked it, the rules are the same as the last time I had to fill one out (and that's been quite a while.)
You normally expect ID + social security card but that's not the only option. I have yet to find anyone in HR that actually knows there are other valid options. The one I've always used is right at the top of list A. One item, that's it. I always have to make them go look up the rules and see that it's enough. The thing is I use my passport an awful lot more than I use my social security card, which do you think I can lay my hands on quicker?
@Loren Pechtel You are correct in saying that if you provide a passport, that is sufficient since it is proof of both identity and employability. Most people provide separate ID (driver's license) & employability (social security card). You'd think HR would know that (but I've given up on expecting people to know how to do their jobs).
What's crazy is some of the rules for employers. If I hire someone, and then fire him because it turns out he's an illegal alien, he can come back next week and give me different fake ID and it can be considered discrimination if I claim he's an illegal and refuse to hire him back under the different fake name. If I hire him, then I get in trouble with the government and have to pay fines for having undocumented workers. We have farmers with crops rotting in the fields because it's not worth it to hire migrant workers.
I am turning in my resignation today.
Never in my life have I seen such horrible people.
If I were walking down the street drinking a bottle of water and saw my soon-to-be-ex manager on fire, I would drink the water.
And flip her off.
Liz: Well, the rest of the week involved a screaming Shiba Inu with an irritated spay incision; a cuterebra (the owner was pretty sure "there was a worm in there" before she brought the dog in; husband said she was nuts; "I told you so" level estimated at 8.6); a dog with a fractured toe who jumped in a swimming pool and needed a bandage change; ear issues; skin issues - and a cat whose owner "forgot to give the gabapentin". Cat left a shed claw in my hand during nail clipping. Cat left with half of nails clipped and a warning to owner to gabapentin the cat next time or we don't clip.
We earned those puppies, dammit.
Part of my job entailed legal representation of mentally ill people, who were usually charged with minor offenses,I would get referrals from the local advocacy group for I had developed a reputation of being very patient with them. Not something that could normally be attributed to me. One thing I found was their parents were often their best advocate. So I would find it very hard to make parents understand that even I as a fairly hard working advocate could not keep an 11 time arrestee our of a jail term, even though I had succeeded 10 times before. It was just the element of trying to pour a couple of gallons of gas down the exhaust vent of a diner that militated against a non custodial disposition. I had nightmares about what could have happened and did not because he was captured, in the act. I gained a whole new sense of what it really means to be a parent from these people, many a 75 year old taking care of a 45 year old shamed me in my failings,I saw love. My children should thank them for it caused me dial down some of my assholedness when dealing with them . Oh, you were not really talking about that kind of insanity at the job were you ? Sorry.
I'm feeling incredibly sane and stress free since I retired 7 months ago!
I'm a copyeditor for a small publishing company specializing in mental health texts for mental health professionals, so you could say that insanity is my business. (Plus which, you should see how some of these MDs and PhDs write.) But a lot of you have outdone me by a long way. Thanks for sharing your stories.
I am going home and having an nice, frozen chicken pot pie.
that much preservatives will help keep my mind clear for the next week of craziness and pending Holiday weekend glorious end to summer, when I am on call.
Yup, sounds like a Friday afternoon. I had a simple dental cleaning turn into 3 molar extractions, two mini pigs, hypoglycemic Yorkie, a diabetic schnauzer that always curves beautifully in hospital but randomly goes above 600 at home, and the neediest client on earth just switched schools and has a child in my daughter's grade. Good times.
I work in the call center for a major lab company. I'm only supposed to take calls from lovely people like Dr. Grumpy, his nurse, or Mary (who needs a raise!). Every now and again I get a patient call...sigh, deep breaths, thinks "hopefully they only want a location and hours, please let that be all!" So I get to explain how to collect for male fertility analysis. And no, the female half of the couple cannot 'help' with collection, either orally or other. And yes, you need a container from the lab or doctor's office. No, don't use that take out food container, even if you've put it through the dishwasher. And yes, you really stop have to abstain for three days before, no, we're not trying to make your testicles explode.
I'm really not joking about ANY of these questions/statements. And then I wonder why I have migraines!?!
I work in an ultrasound dept
some of the stupid requests we've had:
--pt has a lump sometimes in left lower quadrant - please assess (did you want me to do that before or after he took a cr*p)
--assess arteries in legs because patient's legs hurt when he sits in a metal lawnchair
--assess patient's kidneys as she might be a renal donor (admittedly, initially an admirable goal. Until I learned the intended recipient was someone she had met in the bar last week. Not exactly a close relationship.)
--assess patient's hand -- it hurt for a day after he opened a bottle of wine
Those are just the ones i remember right now
This happened to me last week. I am a pharmacy manager and was working alone one evening. I get a call on the Doctor Line and it is a physician asking if the Target my pharmacy is located in has distilled water in stock. I work for CVS not Target so I don't know what stock they have. I also don't have any way to look it up. I tell her at least 3 times that I work for CVS NOT TARGET. Even though we are in the same building it seems a little ridiculous to ask me to check stock for a company I don't even work for. I try to explain to her that she will need to contact the Target store to check stock and even give her the phone number. She starts complaining and says "Can't you walk over to that section and tell me if they have it." I tell her I cannot leave the pharmacy because I am the only person working right now and it would be against the law to leave the pharmacy unattended. She then says "My name is Dr. Entitled and you are being very rude right now." The doctor asked to speak to the pharmacy manager. I told her I am the pharmacy manager and then she asked to speak to my supervisor. She was very unhappy when I informed her that my supervisor only works until 5 pm and has an office in a different location so there was no way to transfer her. She then hangs up and calls the Target store to get her answer.
My pharmacy technicians keep asking me if there is any distilled water in stock just to be funny.
Right there w you....just finished my first week as a k/1 special education teacher. We all made it!
I'm a DVM, and the number of people who are rude to the receptionists or technicians, but then sweet as candy to me are impossible to count. Or who refuse to ask their question to the receptionist or technician, and instead insist on speaking to the doctor... to then ask, "Can I get a refill on..." or "My dogs eye exploded, what can I give it at home?" or "My dog hasn't eaten in a week, what's wrong with it?" (and there are people who expect that last one answered over the phone, without having seen the patient.)
The other day, we had a double appointment booked at our last appointment slot for the day. Appointment made that morning. They didn't show... until 5 minutes before close (25 minutes late), rushing in and exclaiming, "Oh, we're only a little late! Oh, did you mop already? I guess we could reschedule if it'll be too much of a hassle to do their shots! But there's just no way that we can get here any earlier!"
We had a customer come in yesterday and was violently ill in the bathroom. The other employee said there was vomit everywhere--the toilet, the urinal, the sink, under everything, everywhere. The kicker--he came out and told us "I think I might have missed."
I'm the admin for our institutions medical research database program. The other day I got an email complaining that the project manager hadn't given him permission to download research with identifying information in their project. He then proceeded to request I download it for him and just email it to him.
No.
What an interesting crew we have on board tonight.
It was the time when the generic drug industry was just getting on board with approved use of ANDA, abbreviated new drug application by by the FDA, so generic chemical companies were able to provide drugs similar to the original patented 'innovator'.
Not everyone was familiar with the concept. Truth be told, a lot of brand name companies took advantage of this and started making their own branded generics. Lilly and Dista come to mind. When the generic was made by the innovator, the two products were often very, very similar in appearance, basically same color, shape, etc..
Except, Lilly's Prozac had written in very small writing 'Lilly' and the product manufactured (probably in the same lab), Lilly's generic sister company, Dista's fluoxetine had 'Dista' written on the capsule in very small writing.
To my way of thinking it made no difference, brand or generic for that particular combination of circumstances (where the generic was made by the brand name company), so I didn't really pay much attention to what I was pouring out of Dista's little brown pill bottle, until I heard a very loud commotion at the pharmacy counter, and preceptor went to where I was filling prescriptions and told me to pour out the hundred or so capsule contents of the filled prescription bottle onto the counting tray and separate out the capsules that said Lilly from those marked Dista and fill the bottle with only capsules that were marked Lilly.
I suppose I would have had my druthers at the time, too, if I was completely unfamiliar with the concept.
Sort of reminds me of the wool that the EpiPen generic company Mylan CEO is attempting to pull over our eyes about why the cost is sky-high. Simple reason. Because she can get away with it.(and, its company's stockbrokers expect it, that she will.)
It was Halloween. The school principal, dressed as a vampire, complete with fake blood around his mouth, was hacking away at pumpkins in preparation for the carving contest. The way he was flailing away with that knife made me make myself scarce. I think he was working out professional frustration on those gourds.
Turns out, he accidentally slashed his wrist. He flung a paper towel around the wound, and he walked with the vice-principal to a nearby major hospital. Apparently, the triage nurse in Emergency was initially very excited by all the "blood" on his face from his costume. And they admonished him for not calling for an ambulance for a 2-block trip. The wound was shallow, but required stitches. I don't think there was even a scar.
I am an RN, certified in Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing. At one time was in charge of a locked unit. Once had a staff nurse chart, the patient's blood work was "out of whack". When I told her she couldn't chart that, she wanted to know why. She argued with me in the middle of the nurses station for at least 15 minutes before she relented.
Another time I just happened to look over at another nurse while she was charting,and she was happily using white out on the mend chart. I had to explain why she couldn't use it.
My medical transcription job ended last year, so I retired. From what I've just read, I'm glad that my days are made up of housework, laundry, errands, etc. My husband drives a school bus, and school will be starting in a couple of weeks. He's been doing this for ten years, and I'm surprised he's still sane.
I work in mechanical design. It's mostly a lot of "Hey, can you design and get this thing machined that we know normally takes 4 weeks and we knew we needed it 3 months ago to us by the end of the week, thanks."
I work at a collision repair facility (processing insurance claims) and on this morning, the shop manager came and asked for the job sheets (clipboard) on a specific non-driveable vehicle that had been towed in that morning.
I said sure and printed out his clipboard and put it on his job rack with the others. Literally 20 mins later, he comes back and asks for them again and tells me he really needs them so to do my damn job.
Instead of telling to open his damn eyes, I smiled and said of course, sorry I'll get right on it. So I do up another clipboard and put it on his job rack with the others.
Another 40 mins later I get an interoffice email, requesting the job sheets again, and that it shouldn't take me this long to do it. I laughed and silently wondered how long this was going to continue. So i printed off another clipboard and put it on his job rack.
This carried on ALL MORNING, no lie. I probably would have told him to check his job rack (you know, where all job sheets are put) if he wasn't being such a colossal asshat.
It was nearly 5pm when he came up to my desk with 9 (9!!) clipboards in his hands. He would not meet my eyes and just said, "yeeeaahh, I really only need 1." I was like 'uh huh? so why do you think you have so many?"
"Cause I'm an idiot" was his only answer hahahahaha.
Good God! They only told us dumb RTs no white out about seventeen times! How many times did you get the spiel in nursing school? I can't believe that didn't cost her the job.
When I was inpatient, we weren't allowed any electronic devices. I didn't realize until then how much I relied on my cell phone to pass the time.
Back in the old days, when people actually answered the phones, I worked in the Public Affairs office at Baylor College of Medicine. When the operators didn't know what to do with a caller, they forwarded it to me. Some folks seemed to think that if you call a medical school, a doctor picks up the phone. Oh the intimate details that would be spilled to me until I was able to stop them and say, "You need to talk to a urologist (or whatever)."
Yesterday I administered an end-stage cardiomyopathy and dementia patient his liquid oxycodone mixed in a little applesauce. He ate it with no trouble, but declared "Too much tomato!". So I guess liquid oxy and applesauce tastes like tomatoes?
Pharmacy tech here. The other day we had a customer come in. She was a tourist on vacation so we didn't have her in our system and obviously didn't have access to her drug profile. She had left her medication at home and wanted to know if she could buy some from us. The medication she wanted was "the one that comes in the plastic bottle. You know, there's 30 pills in it."
I am a teacher.
At our school we have split lunches. Half to to class, half eat. Then swap. The current schedule wasn't balanced some some classes were shifted.
counselor..."I had one girl bawling her eyes out because she now had a different lunch than her boyfriend."
For three days.
I would have told her that it was in stock and hung up the phone :)
The local 911 operator called my fellow on-caller to connect her with a woman whose horse had cut itself and needed stitches. Instead of calling the vet's office, she called 911.
I took a Health Unit Coordinator course YEARS ago. No whiteout was allowed in the classroom; you scratched out the change and initialed it. The whole 'complete record' thing -even if it meant you had to own your mistakes. (Glares at two classmates.)
I don't have anything very thrilling -the coworker who would never clean the bathroom when she was assigned that section of the mall, and then I got yelled at for it comes closest. (Dysfunctional environment, and I really should have called FMLA and OSHA.)
However, I read a seriously "what the?" story over at Ask a Manager recently, entitled, "an employee is putting magic curses on her coworkers". Yep.
I'm afraid I haven't come across a good -and current- place to discuss the fun over here without seeming spammy.
I'm a casino auditor. I've gotten screamed at because I couldn't instantaneously mind Mel meld a copy of their taxable jackpot form to the tax preparers office on April 15th.
I'll bet she doesn't get why you have to write "purulent" and not "pussy" either...
On call as a paeds intern. Got a call fromthe ward:
"Dr, you know the patient by the door, the big boy with xyz?"
"Uhm...yes?"
"His tooth is loose. It's about to come out and bleeding a little"
"So..rinse with warm water and when it falls out put a cotton swab in. Then put the tooth under his pillow and page the tooth fairy."
"Yes Dr. Thank you!"
I kid you not they wrote this in the chart.
I'm a lawyer and years ago was court appointed to represent an guy accused of armed robbery.
The client insisted he did not take his gun into the store to threaten anyone. He took it in "for protection" he claimed. "Protection?" I asked.
He explained: Yeah, in case the store clerk had a gun and tried to shoot me!
I am a vet. Gentleman recently acted out what his cat's suspected seizure episode looked like--on his hands and knees on the exam room floor. His wife kept saying things like 'I'm sure she knows what you mean' but he just wouldn't stop. I was not sure what to say about that.
Attending job starts in 1 week. I'll keep you posted. ;) P.S. Hiiiiii!
Large hospital system is moving out of building. We get the call to go remove the equipment. We arrive on-site to find the bulldozers and such finishing the demolition. Seems the Program Manager left us as the last to call because they wanted to make sure the folks were out and didn't need the network.
Instructional Designer here. I try to create training material on medical devices for salespeople. Most of my material comes from the marketing department, which makes for personal internal mirth while keeping a straight face with the marketing personnel. Most of them hate it when I ask detailed questions about the device because they don't have the answers. I've learned a lot here.
Many thanks go to friends in the medical professions who will freely answer my questions about how they actually use or operate a certain device. I don't have access to those folks at work. It surely helps me help the sales people to understand what is important about device procedures.
Middle school teacher here. There is so much craziness that goes on here, it's impossible to pick out one situation. It's week 2 of back-to-school, and yes, we still have kids getting lost, coming late to class because of getting lost (yeah right, 8th graders), and staring around with wide eyes in the hallway freaking out about being lost. 6 days down, 174 to go...
Ms. Patient is female with a history of depression, PTSD symptoms, and a significant past history of opioid use disorder. At our initial encounter Seroquel was recommended for lotsa Hail Mary reasons. She arrived late asking for more valium because as prescribed by Dr. Getoutta Myoffice was not sufficient. Noted that she also has one remaining refill as prescribed by Dr. Getoutta Myoffice. State prescription monitoring confirmed. When asked, the patient states that she had been given an "automatic refill by Dr. Numnuts, but I told him to not do that to stop it." Of note, Dr. Numnuts did fill a prescription for Valium dated 8.8.16, with no previous prescriptions since 3.8.16. Patient also took her dad's prescribed Valium because he is on a larger dose. Discussed with patient my concerns that benzoss can worsen her condition. The patient did not agree, and stated that Valium was the only thing that she could take, unless we would consider another benzo. The patient also states that she knows people from whom she could obtain Valium illicitly (which will totally make me write for a benzo...) The patient became visibly upset and argumentative. Offered alternative, non-benzos, and the patient declined again stating that only Valium works for her. At this time, the patient also referred to the attending physician Dr. Attending, as a F**king B**ch, and complained about the amount of time she had to wait. When I discussed the case with Dr. Attending, and we returned to speak with the patient together, the patient became more argumentative, blaming the psychiatry team for not helping her, for leaving her "with nothing" (in spite of the fact that we offered multiple medications and observed that an existing prescription for Valium was present). The patient reiterated her dislike for Dr. Attending, and physically placed her chair in between myself and Dr. A. We again discussed the lack of benefit of benzodiazepine medications, and the patient requested that Dr. A leave the room. Discussed with patient the necessity of Dr. A being present and continually involved in the patient's care, and that if the patient did not feel this was a helpful alliance, that an alternative might need to be pursued. The appointment had progressed significantly over the allotted time, and we indicated that given existing Valium prescriptions, the patient could decide if she wanted to continue care as currently arranged, but the appointment would have to end there. The patient closed the door behind Dr. A, and again stated that if she were to harm herself or others (though she denied any SI/HI/VI upon inquiry) it would be my and Dr. A's fault. The patient was advised that the appointment was over and her behavior was not appropriate and she needed to leave. As she was leaving the patient again called Dr. Attending a "B**CH."
From back in the day before I was a nurse... Working as a tech on a tele unit, a patient we were trying to get admitted to a psych facility tore himself out of restraints, started running down the hallway swinging his tele box over his head like a lasso and ended up bashing a nurse in the head with it (she had to go to the ER, ended up ok, but pretty shaken up) before security and our burliest CNAs could subdue him.
I'm in HR...a recruiter for a large high-tech company. I have been doing this for many years so I have some doozy stories, but the most recent (last week) is the candidate who, during my scheduled time with him, stopped talking for a moment to use his nose spray.
1. You of your own free will have chosen and registered your child in our program.
2. Your child can take a maximum of 3 classes.
3. The classes are taught once a day, the order never changes.
4. You had to confirm that the classes your child are registered in are indeed the ones you want them to take. You confirm them by time period i.e. 1st, 2nd, 3rd.
5. You are sent a list of the room numbers in which the classes will be held.
6. Why do you freak out that the whiteboard at the main entry is listing only class name and room number?
6.1 Why can't you understand that other classes will be taught in the rooms throughout the day?
7. Why don't you know what classes you have chosen?
8. Why are you actually screaming in the lobby?
9. Why is there more than one parent behaving this way?
Retail pharmacy manager blessedly leaving that hell scape soon... I was in the drive through selling a man his daughter's Adderall. I got the credit card and the ID. Verify address, verify copayment, make the sale, and place the two aforementioned cards in a convenience envelope, staple the whole shebang with the receipt to the bag and send it down the chute. I turn to help a person in consult when the damn drive thru phone rings. 'Where is my credit card?' he demands. Explain that I placed his card and ID in the convenience envelope. He counters that I did no such thing. I pantomime looking for the cards, and ask him to do the same (this usually works). He refuses and demands that I turn out my pockets because I must have stolen his credit card (?). Of course, I call for the store manager (yeah, I get paid more, but I have work to do, so there). Asshat refuses to leave drive through and starts yelling that he is going to call the police and have me arrested for theft. Store manager, wise despite everything else she does wrong, sends the assistant store manager, who cannot calm said asshat down. Sensing that the drive thru is effectively shut down, cars start appearing out of the ether, honking to be the next to accuse me of something. After ten minutes asshat actually looks in his wallet and, lo and behold, finds his cards. "I found my cards,'" he informs me. No nothing, no apology. I bid him a lovely day and go to my designated cuss corner and let it rip. What I should have done (and still might, now that my days are numbered) is yell that I probably make three times his salary so why the fuck would I want his piss card. Ugh. Retail pharmacy in a bottle.
I have worked in IT for over 25 years.
I do a lot of phone support. Most recent thing that ticked me off. Guy at a new customer called. Said "my speakers don't work, they worked before your most recent visit", I tried to ask some questions and start troubleshooting over the phone. He said "I guess you will have to come fix them". Since their office was 40 miles away, I knew that wasn't going to happen.
Turns out, his speakers had dead batteries in them. What really made this frustrating, the guy is a commercial electrician.
I volunteer as a booklady for the ACS thrift shop here. Once we pull the discards from the shelves, they now pile up in the back room by the boxfull. No one will take them anymore.
I work as a Physician Assistant at a walk in clinic. 3 days a week. School just started. Wanna guess how many School / Sports physicals I've done? Including many "it's 3:30 practice is at 4:00 I as a Parent knew About this for months but YOU must now do in the next 15 minutes ". I'm sure Skool Nurse is Rolling her eyes w/ me!
I work in a bakery. I bake the cakes, and make the icing, but do not decorate the cakes.
This one couple changed their baby shower cake size THREE times over the course of the week. The last one was after I had finished baking it. She was also upset because the decorator was not there, and could not tell her how much the (now smaller) cake would cost.
Another one is a lady who got mad that we did not replicate the picture she sent of the cake exactly. My boss told her how much it would cost, and she didn't want to pay it, and told us to do X and Y on the cake, but not Z, then got mad when Z wasn't on it....
Don't even get me started on the people who call and ask me if we sell cakes, or ask what we sell in the bakery (we have 75+ items for sale, not including coffee beverages).
Maggots in the ear of a kitten. Someone else had to finish it, I couldn't get past the thought of those buggers burrowing into the kittens brain and eating it
Preach! All students should be given telescoping batons to whack at the cars.
Hospital pharmacist here. R1 asked me how much warfarin to give a patient, so I asked who was the patient. "Well, he's at the other hospital across town".
So I asked what was the INR.
"4.5"
RN with 40 yrs experience. Recent round of raises gave most 1% while new hires got 10-12%. Mangelment also states there isn't money in the budget to train the new hires to the night shift, and "we don't want them to be unhappy". So they get straight day shift. What other profession treats their experienced staff this way? 1 yr 8 months till retirement.
Insanity: Of whom? Us, or the doctors we transcribe for?
My main gripe is doctors or any providers who don't dictate with clear speech. The ones who whisper, mumble, lisp, stutter, dictate at a busy nursing station with phones and pagers ringing as well as cackling nurses in the background at top volume, and my personal favorite is the ones with vocal fry. That growling, forced lowered voice is so difficult to understand and makes the person sound like they're chronically constipated. Even the women who do it. Let's not forget the ones who dictate at home with kids screaming in the background, or in the car with kids, or at any public event with a lot of noise to make it more difficult to hear the dictator.
You have to love the ones who dawdle and collect their thoughts during a 15 minute dictation, making it take forever, but speed through the lab values like a crack-smoking chimp so that nobody can tell if the dictator says 15 or 50.
There's always a foreign doctor who can barely be understood with the simplest English language words, let alone complicated medication or procedure or disease names.
I wonder if the author will let this comment be published, because it's the truth.
I've worked for an IT company for over 25 years. It began as a successful start-up that was bought by a big fish who later merged with a whale. Now that we're huge, the disconnect between mission statement and reality is huge too. My current gripe is about a woman on my team who's out sick a day or two every week (and seems to be faking it), arrives late and leaves early when she bothers coming to work, and mostly shops and plays online instead of working when she finally parks her butt in her desk chair. The rest of us show up, work hard, and shake our heads in frustration. She's been doing this for at least a decade, and her colleagues have complained to management about her for at least that long. Our manager does nothing about her; his most recent response to a coworker who complained about picking up her slack was "let it go." Many of us are looking for other jobs because of management's unwillingness to fire her. But the real kicker is the company's constant bragging about its commitment to excellence, innovation, and ethics and how well its employees practice those values. What a joke in light of our colleague's continued abuse, which management allows.
Post a Comment