Call is not the thing under the bed

I’ve done this call thing for a while.

Even before I was the night call nurse, I took a LOT of call.

Alotalot.

At the height, I was pulling something like 88 hours of call a week.

For those playing along with a calculator saying huh? That is every weekday night 2300-0700. Which is essentially 40 hours a week. Add in 48 hours on the weekend that is 88 hours.

I didn’t take EVERYONE’S call. Just 95%-100% of it. And if the nurse responsible for the day call on the weekends still wanted to keep their call, I still took laser call. Because, by policy, there has to be a dedicated person to run the laser.

Call exists so that the OR can be staffed, even during the night or on weekends.

Call exists so that the patient in need of surgery can have surgery at the hospital.

Call exists so the surgical team only has to be on stand-by in case there is a surgical need.

Call just is a function that we, as the OR team, fulfill.

It doesn’t have to be scary.

You just have to know how to get the answers that you need when a situation arises.

OR who to reach out to get the information.

But, I get it. Call isn’t for everyone.

Some people like to sleep all night without the possibility that they will be needed at the hospital. Some people like to have a glass of wine after their shift.

I can’t tell you how to get to a state of zen about taking call.

I can tell you that you need to relax.

Take a deep breath, unclench your fingers from the phone, put it down, and close your eyes.

In years, and years, and year, and hour upon hour of taking call (and they are legion), I slept through a phone call AND my pager exactly once.

Odds are good that it won’t happen to you.

As I tell new scrubs about calling in the scrub tech, if you don’t answer I try again, and then I try the secondary number, and then I start down the list searching for someone to come in and function as the call person.

There may be consequences. But again, has happened less than 15 times in all that time.

Don’t fear the call. It isn’t the monster under the bed.

I’d take it if I could.