Me: “Do you know where the nurse is who is taking care of Mr Neglect in room 14?”
Nurse: “She is on break.”
Me: “OK, who is covering her?”
Nurse: “I am not sure but I think she also just went to break.”
Me: Bangs head on desk.

It really sucks when it is so busy that you don’t get a chance to eat for 8-12 hours. I am not counting poaching a Jello cup from the patient refrigerator - I mean able to sit down for 10 or 15 min and eat some left overs from the night before or some semi-edible […]

I have posted on this before but it bears repeating. I love the snow - and it is not because I am a skier. I also don’t mean I love it when I am driving (although it is more because of all the traffic and others who flail about without snow tires […]

I don’t know but I guess I can understand. Some people define themselves by their career. When they retire, they essentially lose their identity and get really depressed. Still, I think it gets to the point where you need to turn your stethoscope and enjoy other aspects of life. I know for sure […]

ERP (walking into the ER at 9am, about to take a sip of coffee): “Good Morning, How was your weekend?”
Nurse: “Fine, get into room 19″
ERP: “What?”
Nurse: “Get into room 19, you need to tube this guy, I think they just started compressions”
ERP (heading over to room 19):”Great, what a way to start”
Two minutes […]

The other day I had a shift that I would characterise as either suffering from multiple personality disorder or just being very Stevenson-eque.
The first half was the nice, pleasant Dr Jekyll - patients strolling in at about 1 per hour, no one particularly ill, annoying, or difficult to deal with. We were chillin’ and […]

OK, I freely admit that I lost my cool. I was not professional. I should not do that. Still, I did something I always wanted to do (and I bet many of you medical professionals have wanted to do as well but bit your tongues). IT FELT GREAT.
Here was the exchange:
Patient (a 19 year old […]