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WARNING back to triage doing triage things.

Translating initials at bottom of page



I had stories from triage literally involving sticks and stones but chose to conclude my ongoing manger story.


Saturday night and the full moon brushed the top of the trees in the distance. It was another night for rational people to turn into crazies and freaks. Tempers would flare and the guns and knives would come out. The OB floor would fill up and the Trauma floor would be wild.

Correction, I thought swiping my badge to gain entrance into an already wild floor. I sighed. Day shift was going to have to clean up their messes before my night nurses took over. I sat reading the charge nurse’s report in the break room when the door burst open and the new manager entered. Her short brown hair stood on end and her eyes were wild.

“Why are you sitting here? It’s mayhem out there. Do something.”

“Night shift makes a point of not interfering with day shift; the charge nurse should be able to handle it. No, you are working nights. So you need to sit and wait until they come to us for report. Trust me when I say they will take offense if we were to stick our fingers into their work. By the time we are up to speed they will have it under control.”

“That’s gonna change. I am THE BOSS. It would do well for you to remember that tonight.”

M.F.S.O.B., hellfire and damnation. The bitch had learned nothing. Tonight was going to be bad. I should have cleaned her bones instead of offering to teach and help her.”

“This is the charge nurse’s report. It gives you an idea of what is on the floor, what is waiting to come from surgery and what’s about to leave triage or on its way in.” I was still playing nice.

She snatched the papers from my hand and sat down to read. Other night nurses trickled in; Paula raised her eyebrow at me after eying the back of THE BOSS’ head. One by one the day nurses came in and reported off their patients. The charge nurse came in and nodded to me then sat to update the floor changes with Rene.

After report, Paula and I stood, “Time to go to work.” THE BOSS followed us to triage where housekeeping was busy sterilizing the main arena.

We slipped into our waiting area. “I need to review with you the protocols. What the doctor’s expect to be ready for them how to set up a sterile field for the C.V.C. and setting up for intubation. Whatever you do don’t contaminate the sterile field by reaching across it. They hate that.”

“I don’t need you to tell me how to do my job. And I don’t care what the residents want or think. In fact I have decided I will do the immediate triage and be making the assignments,” THE BOSS snapped.

This was worse than I feared, “You realize you give the lesser of the injuries to nurses in the bays with the circulating resident and keep the major injury in the main arena and assist the head resident? You do understand that?”

“I’m not stupid I can handle whatever, and I’m not worried about some resident.”

If it hadn’t feared she’d kill a patient this night I’d have walked out. “You understand this is Saturday night with a full moon; not only do we have the regular knife and gun club out and MVAs; along with that we will have the crazies.”

“I don’t believe in that moon crap, and seems to me I am paying you to sit here on your asses doing nothing until you get a patient. I think that we can send someone home, maybe two.”

“I’d hold off on that or you are going to find yourself drowning and us going on diversion which administration really frowns on especially when they discover you sent nurses home.”

THE BOSS glared, “This is my floor and I will run it as I see fit,” and walked out to the charge desk. Paula looked at me, “You just had to play nice. This is one of your worst ideas,ever -- helping her. We are going to have patients dying tonight because of her and she is going to twist it to make it your fault.

"I’m not going to let her kill anybody.” The whoosh of helicopter blades gearing up broke the silence. All three lifted off at once.

“Great, wonderful, all three are going out at once. This is going to be bad.”

“Go get her. We need to prepare.”

I spoke with the paramedics over the radio the first was a shootout at a mini-market, two victims. I made notes on my hand in medical shorthand vitals, neuro, loss of blood; and always the ABCs -- airway, breathing, cardiac or pulse.

The second helicopter called in a farm accident. A man came too close to a ditch on his tractor turned over on top of him. He’d been trapped until his wife went look for him dinnertime. Crushing injuries and they had had to shock him once already inflight.

The third helicopter — our moon freaks — three redneck buddies got together and decided to see, in their drunken state, which one had the hardest bones. They shot 6-8 nails from a nail gun into each others clavicles then took small hatchets and on the count of three embedded them in the center of their foreheads.

I put myself in a corner and made a call, “The new manger is taking triage over tonight," and I told him what we already had coming in, “This might be a night you want to make a surprise visit for your residents. She’s going to cause your resident to kill someone and she’ll make it his fault.”

Paula was standing in the door, “Calling in the Calvary.”

“Hell, yes. I have to protect the patients from her.”

“And us.”

“What?”

“You’re protecting the residents and the nurses.”

“I’m protecting my own ass.”

“UH HUH, cause you are so selfish. You know, you love us all.”

"Go away, you're ruining my reputation."

We both raised our heads as the first LifeFlight returned and settled on its bulls eye. “Get her.”

THE BOSS and I were standing at the door when the GSW gurney came inside. The first was on a backboard prone. The bullet entered the central back and left buttock. “Rene takes this one.”

“Rene is charge she doesn’t do triage tonight unless we get in a crunch."

“I meant Paula.”

“No, did you not understand when I explained the victims that are incoming? Paula is one of the strongest nurses. This GSW is a flush intubation, CVC, and labs. Let Gina have him and Leslie the next. Both have only three months working triage. Save your strong nurses for what’s coming on that second and third helicopter.”

“I AM THE BOSS. PAULA TAKES THE FIRST; BARBRA, YOU THE SECOND.”

Mine was a simple in and out shoulder wound, no complications. Line, Labs, fluids. No need to intubate. Morphine for pain.

That was a waste and a lost opportunity for one of the new girls to get experience with GSWs.

"YOU FORGET I'M THE BOSS"

“I'm not deaf. But when you lose a patient, DO not blame anyone but yourself.”

“One more word and I will send out of triage.”

“Word.” I always wanted to do that.

She kicked me out. I went to sit with Rene and waited. I had been wrong. She WAS an idiot. I heard panic when the farmer was brought into the main arena and the resident began berating her — when he yelled she’d contaminated his sterile field for the central line -- for a second time, I did an evil mental dance.

The two gunshot victims were stabilized and transferred to surgery. Again I heard him yell at her had she never placed cardiac leads on a patient before. I heard Paula offer to help and that got her kicked out with me.

“She thinks she is going to run triage all by herself, that it’s a one person job? She is even stupider than we thought.”

“Just wait. The third LifeFlight is settling down. Drunks—hatchets in their heads—there will be blood. LOTS of blood with head injuries.”

The Trauma Attending arrived lab coat flapping like the wings of an avenging angel, “What the hell are the two of you doing sitting out here.”

“We’re in time out.”

“I hate new, incompetent managers.”

The resident yelled at THE BOSS that she was totally incompetent, why hadn’t she drawn labs when the line was placed? The patient was ready to go the surgery with no labs! They'd have to wait now.

The Attending entered triage.

“How long?” Paula asked, resigned

“Not long.”

“PAULA, BARBRA,” ten seconds.

THE BOSS was lying on the floor by the first drunken patient his face and upper body saturated in blood.

I had a CarePartner drag her to a corner and prop her in a sitting position; and turned to the paramedics. We usually just step over you if you faint, but she blocked the door.

“Did you check them for glucose leaks?”

“Just the third one had stains—eyes, nose and ears.” Wife called us when they got the hatchets out; should be in the waiting room. No allergies known on all three. Not feeling any pain. E.T.O.H. we gave them nothing. The other two have harder heads—no penetration into the brain, no glucose.

I gave Paula the first and Rene came in to do the second. By then The Attending had the farmer off to surgery and housekeeping rushing to disinfect.

THE BOSS came to as #3’s gurney wheels were locked in place. She stood hands on her hips with her lips compressed looking twenty years older than her age. Finally she blurt out, “I gave YOU a direct order to stay out of triage.”

“And I told her to return. I believe my word overrides yours.”

“Why are you here you don’t work nights?” she demanded suspiciously.

“I do spot checks on my night residents. It’s a regular practice for all Attendings. You should know that.”

I continued placing the leads on his chest wiping blood as I went. I moved to the right of the patient’s head and set up the central line paraphernalia for the doctor to insert then moved to cut off the patient’s clothing taking care with the shirt and the nails in his collarbone.

Because of the position of the hatchet he could not be intubated so we got an electric powered screwdriver brought from maintenance and as I stabilized the metal, the Attending removed the screws then the handle. I ducked under the table holding the patient’s head down and Nate our male CarePartner held the head of the hatchet and the doctor was able to easily intubate. I drew labs from the line and hustled them off to the lab via Nate and THE BOSS who was standing with her mouth open asked, “What about all that blood on his face?”

“Bluster mostly, lots of capillaries in the head, see no active bleeding. What is there is congealing. Now, I am going to wash down his chest with sterile saline so the doctor can eyeball the damage of the nails. Hang two bags of Oneg for me, please.”

“Without a type and cross?”

“We always hang universal donor blood till we have the T & C, it's protocol.”

“Doctor, we've got a problem. I have active bleeding from the nail on the left side, it’s deeper than the others.”

“Give me a scalpel.”

THE BOSS, “You can’t do surgery here.”

“I can do anything I want, lady. And since you have proven yourself useless and have not a clue what goes on in a triage unit, shut the fuck up.”

“How dare you talk to me that way, I am the manager of this floor.”

“Not for long at this rate.”

She blustered but everyone ignored her.

The Attending made an incision beside the nail and I suctioned a half canister of blood. "We have a puncture in the aorta. Each heartbeat pushes the nail out and it has been moving back to block the flow of blood out. That’s not going to hold until we get him downstairs."

“Put up another two units of blood, on the infuser—Nate will show you how to work it.”

“I need you on the gurney, Barbra,” he lifted me to straddle the patient. He tossed sterile towels over my lap. I had my phone out and hit the speed dial “I need a Neuro surgical resident for three patients and a stat cardio-thoracic and an immediate suite. I’m on my way down with the patient, now.” To THE BOSS “hang two more units of blood and a bag of Ancef (our prophylactic antibiotic). She’d stopped asking questions and was actually helping.

“Digging fingers in the patient’s chest the Attending sighed, “found the hole in the aorta. Give me your hand.” He guided my finger to the hole. I could feel the blood pound against my fingers even through double gloves with each beat of his heart. Finding my voice over such a creepy feeling to THE BOSS I said, “Can you clean the blood from his face before we move him, quickly before we go?”

She looked startled. “You are sitting on a patient with your hand in his chest worrying over blood on his face, and making phone call and giving orders?”

The Attending gave her a look, “It’s our job to give the surgeons a clear field to work with, well as clear as we can.”

The doors burst open and they were actively trying to revive a twenty year old male involved in an MVA. He went to help; she finished cleansing his face. “Is it always like this? . . . This crazy?

“A full moon and yes, on weekend nights it can be wild. We haven’t had the gang bangers yet or a major accident during weekend night maneuvers at Ft. Campbell but the night is young.”

She followed the gurney to the door and watched us make the turn to the freight elevator. To Paula she said, “Our nurse shouldn’t be off the floor like that.”

“You prefer the patient to bleed to death. Each time the fingers are removed the opening will shred with each beat of the heart.”

She thought I was gone too long loafing off around somewhere, but my poor knees attested to the fact they’d been dug into a metal gurney for thirty minutes until they could get a stent placed.

THE BOSS followed my lead and directions the remainder of a nonstop brutal, bloody night. I thought she learned something but after our shift was over and before our bloody gowns and masks had been stripped off she announced both Paula and I would be written up for insubordination and that it was obvious changes needed to be made -- such as nurses not leaving with the floor with patients and nurses doing too many chores residents should do. And some patients could wait for care.”

“This is not the E.R. These people enter triage with dying or possible death. Was your brain not here with your body tonight? Could you not see once your fingers were out of the pie that we ran like a synchronized unit? Are you that naïve or just power hungry or just plain stupid?”

I AM THE BOSS OF THIS UNIT AND WHAT I SAY GOES. YOU ARE INSUBORDINATE, RUDE AND REFUSE TO FOLLOW ORDERS OF YOUR BETTERS.”

“Better at what?”

She turned on her heel and made an excellent job of flouncing to her office.

The Attending looked at me and shook his head discarding his gown, “Sticks and Stones, Barbra, sticks and stones . . . she’ll be gone before your next weekend shift. Appreciate the call. She was dangerous.”

Paula smacked my arm, “Never, ever do that again; offer to help a new manager. Just be your regular 'I don’t play well with others'. And send them home to their mommies crying.”

"That only happened once, sheesh."

She was gone by Tuesday. The Medical Center was on the hunt for another manager

Initial Translations
CVC - CENTRAL VENOUS CATHER=IV line in the subclavian vein between the neck and collar bone,
Clavicle - collar bone
MVA - MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT
GSW - GUNSHOT WOUND
M.F S.O.B TEMPER SWEARING FIGURE IT OUT
E.T.O.H.-alcohol

Date: 2012-01-18 12:32 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] basric.livejournal.com
They pay mangers less than I make in two weeks. And they are on salary. A lot of work even more aggravation. As I said in one of my entries all they can get to apply are people wanting Vanderbilt on their resumes and new administrative grads. like this one.

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