OurEMSSite

I remember my first IM rotation as a student, a gaggle of four of us nearly missed stable angina because literally everything sounded like regular old GERD. we admitted him anyway just to be safe, sure enough dude’s got three vessel CAD and got transferred for therapeutic cath

A new police officer walks up to our already secured scene and asks what happened. I responded “well constable… inebriated chap A alluded that status of inebriated chap B’s Jib was unexceptable, to which inebriated chap B responded that the "cut of his jib was entirely beyond reproach”… Fisticuffs followed resulting in the present mayhem and melee… the officer just blinked at me

Not to mention they hold us 911 coverage units over regularly “for just one last transfer call that will be really quick.” When there are plenty of transfer only units posted at hospitals doing nothing at the beginning of their shifts. It also tanks our levels and leaves a lot of the city uncovered for emergency calls.

The thing is everytime you complain about something like people taking breaks, it’s not that you gain something from It, you just make life worse for other people. How about minding your own damn business?

Seems like common sense that people doing a high-stress job that requires a lot of good judgement on matters of life and death should be able to eat and piss when they need to

That really sucks, I can’t imagine what anyone would actually gain by not allowing first responders to have breaks, but it seems ultimately unsafe and unfair, as well as unnecessary. It reminds me of when we had something similar in 2014, when certain trusts in the UK banned NHS staff from drinking hot beverages in any visible areas in case people thought they were slacking. Spokespeople at the time said that  “Clearly this activity has given the wrong impression to staff and the public that clinic staff are not working as hard as they might be.”, “Members of the public are frustrated by long waiting times during clinics and for appointments and are inflamed by seeing members of staff enjoying hot and cold drinks at the reception desks.”  and “Our priority must be to ensure that we are not compromising our high standards by presenting a poor impression to the public and staff who visit our departments.” But the thing is, people drink something on the go precisely because/when they are too busy to eat or take proper breaks. And it’s not always possible to drink fluids in a  space which isn’t exposed to patients; not every GP practice or ward has work spaces where staff can work out of sight of patients. And whilst there’s usually some kind of staff room somewhere, if you’re too busy to take a break then having a quick coffee at your desk whilst you type or between patients can make your life a lot less horrific. I feel that if a trust has lots of staff drinking hot drinks on the go in front of patients, that’s the symptom and not the problem; ensure adequate staffing levels so people can take breaks, and ensure there are plenty of spaces close by to their work environments that are out of sight of patients that they can take a break in or grab a quick drink in, and they won’t be drinking in front of patients. But I honestly don’t see why patients should be offended by a cup of tea on someone’s desk or at a reception desk, and I think that attitude arises from a misunderstanding of why people are drinking beverages in front of patients. Most people understand that staff are busy, and in reality having a quick coffee whilst you keep working is the literal opposite of lazing around at work; if you are seeing someone at a workstation, and they don’t even leave it to drink their beverage (which in all honesty is probably growing cold whilst they are working), it’s only construed as lazy if you inherently see inbibing fluid as a lazy activity, or believe that people at work should be working literally 100% of the time with no breaks. And although I try to avoid eating or drinking within eyesight of patients as much as possible; I avoid the hospital canteen wherever possible, to avoid running into them, lest spending my break catching up on news on my phone be misconstrued as ‘doctors being lazy’, I don’t believe encouraging this line of thinking is inherently correct. By bowing to these kinds of complaints rather than addressing the fact that the real issues are understaffing, delays in services or staff not being able to take adequate breaks, we’re encouraging the view that having a drink or taking a break is inherently lazy, and something that should be done with utter secrecy. Like it’s a weird secret. When, really, patients and visitors should be able to understand that staff are entitled to drink something or take a break. And that although things should be kept as professional as possible (and treating patients comes first), hytrating yourself shouldn’t be seen as inherently unprofessional.

Reblogging for the comments.

I volunteered to work as a nurse at EDC for the 3rd year in a row and honestly, it’s so cool. I learn so much by doing this field hospital stuff. And I got to be a charge nurse for the medical yellow tent this year, so that was really cool!

Hit reblog on this so hard

SHOUT OUT TO KRISTEN BELL’S MOM THOUGH? WHAT KIND OF FANTASTIC SELF-AWARE PARENTING, WELL DONE MA'AM