My Definition of STAT is: "I need that F***ing S**t Right Now!!

Last week was one of those weeks where you're just constantly moving and time is whipping by. I worked Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. It was kind of a tough week at work. It was just really busy all week because I ended up with kind of crazy patient assignments. Then, to top it all off, early Friday morning, I got bitched out by one of the residents and it really upset me. I paged him "STAT" because his patient was in severe pain (10 out of 10 on the pain scale). On top of her pain, she was also extremely anxious, and the situation was starting to escalate very quickly. I knew I needed a STAT order so that I could get the situation under control before things got worse.

So the doctor called me back right away, asking why I paged him STAT. I explained the situation to him, saying that I needed him to increase the frequency of her pain medication. And he said, "Do you know what STAT means?" I explained to him again that I needed a new pain medication order STAT. And in an extremely condescending voice, he told me that STAT pages should only be used for an emergency or a code situation. I then tried to explain to him again, the urgency of the situation, and why I had paged him STAT. He had the nerve to then say in a patronizing and condescending way, "You don't know what STAT means, but I'll write you the order." At which point, I slammed the phone down, and yelled out, probably a little louder than I should have, "You F###ing A$$hole!" (There wasn't anyone else around except one of the other nurses.)

So I got the order right away, and the patient ended up being fine. However, I was not fine. I was absolutely furious. How dare he talk to me in that tone of voice? How dare he ask me if I know what that word means? Every single person in the hospital, even the housekeepers, know what that word means. How dare he question my intelligence? How dare he question the legitimacy of my page?

This is one of those situations where I was so mad at the time, that I couldn't think of anything to say to him. I just sat there and took it. And that makes me even angrier. Of course, by now, I've thought of about a million and one things I could have said to him. If I could go back and do it all over again, I think it would have gone something like this:

"Excuse me, jackass, but seeing as how I've been a critical care nurse for five years now, I'm pretty sure I know what STAT means. In fact, I'm sure I've handled quite a few more STAT situations in my career than you have. And don't you think that if you were the patient lying in the bed with a 10 out of 10 headache that was about to cause you to have a severe anxiety attack that you would want the nurse to page the doctor STAT? So why don't you shut the hell up and write me my god damn order you piece of shit?!?!"

Damn that felt good. Anyway, I'm still debating about whether or not I should report it to the attending doctor (his boss) next time I go to work, or if I should just let it go.

So Friday night I had a little steam to blow off. One of my closest friends from high school came in town from New York to visit for the evening. And later that night, we had yet another episode of drunk travel nurses out on the town, as we were saying goodbye to a friend of ours whose assignment was up. I think I managed to stumble into bed around 3:30 or so, setting my alarm to wake up at 7:00AM. You see, I still had to pack for my trip to Tampa this weekend to visit a friend of mine that I graduated nursing school with. I ended up rolling out of bed around 8:45AM, and then proceeded to freak out for the next hour, while I stumbled around in my hungover state, trying to leave in time for an 11AM flight.

I made my flight on time, and I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend in Tampa. It is a tradition that my group of friends that I graduated nursing school with started a couple of years ago. The two other girls that live in Atlanta and I have in past years all driven down to Tampa to visit our one friend that moved down there after she graduated. It usually turns into Nurses Gone Wild whenever we get together, so it is always a good time. This time around we were more well-behaved than usual. (At least I didn't enter any wet T-shirt contests.) I also thoroughly enjoyed the luxury of 80 degree weather and sunshine. Every time I went outside, I couldn't help but exclaim how nice it felt. Aaaahh.... I love sunshine!

I arrived home to crappy 45 degree weather and rain. Does it ever end? The forecast is for high's in the 40's, low's in the 20's to 30's every day this week! Aargghh.... I am so tired of this weather I could scream!