My co-workers are morons
OK only some of my co-workers are morons. Tonight I was confronted with a scenario which while on its own has little importance signifies a larger failing. We take blood pressures on the unit, mostly to monitor people detoxing from drugs or alcohol. We have one blood pressure gauge, or sphygmomanometer, and two blood pressure cuffs, one small and one large. To switch between the two cuffs there are adapters that are inserted into the tubes coming off the cuffs, the gauge, and the hand pump used to inflate the cuffs. These adapters are plastic, both the female and male ends are threaded and tubes are attached to each other by screwing one over the other. So if we wanted to switch from a large cuff to a small cuff we would detach the large cuff by unscrewing the adapters conncecting the tubes from the guage to the cuff and from the cuff to the pump. We would then reverse the procedure to attach the small cuff to the guage and the pump. Simple right? Particularly if you're looking right at it.
And yet. . .some of my co-workers can't seem to master this system. One of the night nurses I work with was going to do detox vitals but began mewling over the fact that the blood pressure cuff was broken. The cuff wasn't holding pressure so she went to change it, but instead of unscrewing the adpaters she ripped them out and then seemed surprised when she couldn't connect the guage to a new cuff. I put the adapters back in. The cuff wasn't holding pressure because the tube connecting the cuff to the guage had a slice in it near the base. After pruning the tube and reattaching it, the entire apparatus now worked.
So to sum up, evening shift left us with a broken sphygmomanometer, which the night nurse made even more broken by failing to realize that the adapters were twist offs and not pull outs. Don't get me started on why we don't just have a separate gauge for each size cuff.
Now I know this isn't riveting, I know this isn't a crisis situation, I know it was fixed once someone with half a brain and a working knowledge of basic diagnostic procedure stepped in, but it indicates a larger problem. It signifies, in my mind at least, the lazy thinking, poor logic, and buck passing that happens here. It sums up all the half-assedness that occurs on a daily basis on the unit. It makes me angry, it makes me wish I ran this place so I could purge the unworthy, the slacked jawed syphilitic mouth breathers who pass for health care professionals. I also hope I never get sick, and if I do, gentle reader, please haul my carcass into Boston. They're probably just as bad, but I'm not a first hand witness to it.
Ah, I feel better getting that off my chest. Go back to believing in a competent health care system.
And yet. . .some of my co-workers can't seem to master this system. One of the night nurses I work with was going to do detox vitals but began mewling over the fact that the blood pressure cuff was broken. The cuff wasn't holding pressure so she went to change it, but instead of unscrewing the adpaters she ripped them out and then seemed surprised when she couldn't connect the guage to a new cuff. I put the adapters back in. The cuff wasn't holding pressure because the tube connecting the cuff to the guage had a slice in it near the base. After pruning the tube and reattaching it, the entire apparatus now worked.
So to sum up, evening shift left us with a broken sphygmomanometer, which the night nurse made even more broken by failing to realize that the adapters were twist offs and not pull outs. Don't get me started on why we don't just have a separate gauge for each size cuff.
Now I know this isn't riveting, I know this isn't a crisis situation, I know it was fixed once someone with half a brain and a working knowledge of basic diagnostic procedure stepped in, but it indicates a larger problem. It signifies, in my mind at least, the lazy thinking, poor logic, and buck passing that happens here. It sums up all the half-assedness that occurs on a daily basis on the unit. It makes me angry, it makes me wish I ran this place so I could purge the unworthy, the slacked jawed syphilitic mouth breathers who pass for health care professionals. I also hope I never get sick, and if I do, gentle reader, please haul my carcass into Boston. They're probably just as bad, but I'm not a first hand witness to it.
Ah, I feel better getting that off my chest. Go back to believing in a competent health care system.