Nursing Supervisor
Today was way too long. We ran all day...and all night. I feel like I have the flu. I just need a few hours of sleep.
Only one truly memorable call for the shift. I am blanking on most everything right now. We were called to a nursing home for a fall-patient still on the floor. We got on scene and a lady met us at the door. She said she was the "nursing supervisor," and starting giving us report. She said that our patient fell and probably has a broken shoulder. We asked her if the fall was witnessed. She said, "I am speaking now. When I am done telling you the story-then you ask questions." I just looked at my partner and rolled my eyes. So, the nurse finishes her little speech and still hasn't answered us. So we ask again-several times actually, but we never got an answer. Then we asked how she fell. She didn't answer. So we expanded a bit, asking if she slipped or tripped, etc. The nurse said, "When you're 96 years old, you just fall!" Okay...
We got to the patient and she was still on the floor, propped up with pillows and had a sling on her arm. She said her arm hurt, but other than that she was fine. She looked like she was in a lot of pain. She also had a huge knot on her head. We did our workup, got a c-collar on her, put her on a backboard, and did our vitals. She was writhing in pain-her shoulder was obviously deformed.
Because we never got a straight answer from the nurse as to whether it was witnessed or not, we did an ALS workup including an IV. (We also needed the IV for pain meds.) Anyways, when I took her blood pressure it was 206/126. We got the IV, and the woman yelled out in pain. The nursing supervisor came stomping down the hall asking us what we needed an IV for, because this was "just a simple fall." We tried to explain, but she wouldn't listen and stormed right back out of the room. The RN also told us that we must call the hospital before we leave. Well, we didn't call before we left because that's not our protocol.
She was pissed. So, she was calling our company to complain instead of assisting us.
We got the lady out to the rig, did another set of vitals, gave her morphine and meds to decrease her blood pressure. She was doing alright.
We got to the hospital without a problem. Then I got a page saying we need to call operations. I called and the nurse, sure enough, called in a complaint. She said we were rude, we initiated care without her approval, that we did unnecessary treatment and that we didn't consult her before we did anything. She told the call taker that we didn't need to give her morphine IV, that we could have given it P.O., and that she really didn't need morphine anyways, she could have given her tylenol. Nice. I just told operations that we followed our pain management and hypertensive protocols, and that's that. As far as I know the complaint was dropped, but I sure don't want to run into that nurse again.
Only one truly memorable call for the shift. I am blanking on most everything right now. We were called to a nursing home for a fall-patient still on the floor. We got on scene and a lady met us at the door. She said she was the "nursing supervisor," and starting giving us report. She said that our patient fell and probably has a broken shoulder. We asked her if the fall was witnessed. She said, "I am speaking now. When I am done telling you the story-then you ask questions." I just looked at my partner and rolled my eyes. So, the nurse finishes her little speech and still hasn't answered us. So we ask again-several times actually, but we never got an answer. Then we asked how she fell. She didn't answer. So we expanded a bit, asking if she slipped or tripped, etc. The nurse said, "When you're 96 years old, you just fall!" Okay...
We got to the patient and she was still on the floor, propped up with pillows and had a sling on her arm. She said her arm hurt, but other than that she was fine. She looked like she was in a lot of pain. She also had a huge knot on her head. We did our workup, got a c-collar on her, put her on a backboard, and did our vitals. She was writhing in pain-her shoulder was obviously deformed.
Because we never got a straight answer from the nurse as to whether it was witnessed or not, we did an ALS workup including an IV. (We also needed the IV for pain meds.) Anyways, when I took her blood pressure it was 206/126. We got the IV, and the woman yelled out in pain. The nursing supervisor came stomping down the hall asking us what we needed an IV for, because this was "just a simple fall." We tried to explain, but she wouldn't listen and stormed right back out of the room. The RN also told us that we must call the hospital before we leave. Well, we didn't call before we left because that's not our protocol.
She was pissed. So, she was calling our company to complain instead of assisting us.
We got the lady out to the rig, did another set of vitals, gave her morphine and meds to decrease her blood pressure. She was doing alright.
We got to the hospital without a problem. Then I got a page saying we need to call operations. I called and the nurse, sure enough, called in a complaint. She said we were rude, we initiated care without her approval, that we did unnecessary treatment and that we didn't consult her before we did anything. She told the call taker that we didn't need to give her morphine IV, that we could have given it P.O., and that she really didn't need morphine anyways, she could have given her tylenol. Nice. I just told operations that we followed our pain management and hypertensive protocols, and that's that. As far as I know the complaint was dropped, but I sure don't want to run into that nurse again.
posted by Ambulance Girl at 12:11
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