The very first dispatch that I ever wrote, long before Dispatches from the Evening Shift, was about people hollering out of the ORs looking for “Somebody”. That somebody could be someone to count, or to fetch an item, or moving help, or a thousand different things.

I wrote a little memo that I posted to the unit and that made it all the way to corporate that “You are somebody”. In it I described that we are all somebody, someone’s some body if not our own, and that when some body was needed to perform a task or to get something, it could very well be you.

The call shift, much like the evening shift, is populated by a very, very, very limited number of staff. The RN, the scrub tech, the CRNA, and the anesthesiologist. If there is a surgery, the surgeon is counted among the limited staff. We are all some body.

This is the crux of the evening shift and the night call shift, there is no one else to depend on.

This is what I teach and teach and teach when I do the call bootcamps for new nurses.

I believe in the nurse and their abilities to carry out a call case. I believe in the scrub tech. I believe in the anesthesia team. I believe in the surgeon. And I make sure that they all know that I believe in their abilities.

However, this does not mean that I will not answer a call for assistance.

After all, I would rather the patient and the staff be safe than not offer help.

I can handle most of the queries over the phone.

But what is call bootcamp unless it is about teaching people faith in themselves and their nursing practice?

Yes, we are all some body.

But sometimes it is nice to know that somebody else is out there.

Just in case you need a little help.