Of course, there are always doubts. Though clarity sometimes feels significant, it often is ephemeral. I feel just as out of my depth at times as I do engaged in the process others. I think that is pretty normal though. For instance, as an illustration, we have been incredibly fortunate to have so many people giving us so many things for the baby, but sadly one of them, we'll call them S & M (no relation to the other meaning) are having a rough go. M stays home with the baby, and he has not been doing terribly well. He was a former member of a band (name unknown) and has been collecting royalties and not working since the mid 90s (like winning the lottery really). He states he pretty much would wake up around noon, gym at 1, then wait for S to get home from work. Perhaps coming from such a, well, relaxed situation makes the transition to being a stay at home dad more difficult. Perhaps it is just a personality issue. Or perhaps he just isn't cut out for that period. All I know is that he is clearly excited to have the kid, and just as clearly unable to cope with that reality. While it is disconcerting, it is heartening to know that good parenting skills aren't a given. It takes a lot of work and effort and a seemingly bottomless well of patience. (Thank goodness for Zoloft right? :) So, while I certainly hope to be good at it, I more hope that if I am not, I am willing to seek out the help I need or find other options that are best for all involved.
On other topics, my health is improving. I decided to try (in a rare bit of sun induced insanity) mowing our flat and not overly large lawn with the push mower. This is generally quite easy to do and, effort wise, I reasoned similar to pushing my IV cart all over the hospital. Well, if that is the case, the good news is that I finished the lawn. The bad news is that the lawn subsequently finished me as well. But, thanks to one of my remaining pain pills, all is well once again. Evidently waiting 2 weeks is a good idea after all. I am to see the doc on Wednesday. Wish me luck in returning to work on Thursday..........and then wish me luck in not wanting to gouge out my own eyes shortly thereafter.
What little I have followed with my job (I do try to check my work email daily just in case anything come up) is that chaos continues to be the symbol by which my department defines itself. Looks like a lot of sick calls and, because of that and because of a lack of trained personnel for the clinic, things have not been going terribly smoothly. I just got an email about a patient who had been getting too much of a certain medication because the patient's medication infusion plan was built incorrectly (by whom I am not certain). So, based on that incorrect infusion plan, the pharmacy mixed the dose. They have access to the original order as much as we do, but clearly did not check it against the infusion plan. Evidently it was caught on the last day of the infusion, but then a dose was mixed and not administered, which the hospital has to eat the cost of (and it is a dearly expensive medication), though thankfully the patient was unharmed despite getting 5 days dosing in 3.
This has been a concern that I have vocalized to anyone wanting (or not wanting) to listen since we started with the new system. The way it works is that an order is sent to the clinic, the RN (generally me, except when absent) scans the order into the computer system and then builds an infusion plan from that order. When the patient arrives and is verified, the infusion plan is released to the pharmacy who then, presumably, checks the infusion plan against the scanned order. What is clear is that this is not happening...and I always doubted that it ever did. So, if the person who entered the infusion plan did so incorrectly, an incorrect dose would be mixed and then administered unless the person who is administering the drug (likely the person who built the plan in the first place) checks the medication against the original order (which should probably be being done as well). My concern has long been that the only person checking my work is, well, me. And although I pride myself on being very thorough and anal retentive about all aspects of how I run the clinic, I am certainly far from infallible. Just imagining someone who is less accustomed to working in the clinic and less familiar with the medications attempting to do my job, the possibilities for error are exponentially higher. Hopefully this will lead to a repair to the system as a whole.
Saw the Hunger Games yesterday. Not sure how to rate it exactly, though I came away impressed. It definitely is a movie that I feel is very much augmented by reading the book prior to seeing it, because it builds on the personal relationships that are necessarily given short shrift by the film. I continue to have no idea how they will end up filming the third book without a hard 'R' rating though.
More to come as always.
No comments:
Post a Comment