The post-it reads “smug person sitting in the lounge wrapped in a blanket as I came in at 1430 telling me not to call them back in tonight at 1900. Bitch please, I can’t control that!”
Ah, a post-it from before my current role as the night call nurse.
Goodness, I do not miss those days.
I do not miss the sighs when I have to call someone back because it is 2230 and I want to go home at 2300. Or the bargaining of whether or not they ACTUALLY have to come in. Or the anger I received when I wouldn’t stay just an eensie 45 minutes past my shift.
Once someone answered their phone and said that they couldn’t come in because they were drunk. I appreciate your honesty but my shift ends at 2300. What are they going to do about getting coverage? I’m not going to call around and find them coverage for a shift that they just assumed I would stay or or assumed that there would not be a case.
Thankfully, this only happened once.
And once when the person on call was in another STATE!
No, I do not miss those days at all.
Let’s go back to the post-it and this person who was 1) in the lounge on company time 2) in a warmed blanket that would have to be rewashed again on the company dollar and 3) ordering me about as if I was a peasant. Thankfully, that person no longer works for the department.
But, Kate, isn’t that a little harsh?
No. No, I don’t think it is.
The evening charge nurse has no way of knowing which surgical cases are coming in after hours, or if there is even going to be a case. Some doctors troll the ER on the way out of the hospital, looking for cases. Most do not, but some do.
Cut the charge nurse some slack, huh?
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 