Nilknarf News

First call of the weekend... right on time at 23:11, just as I kinda expected. So I'm clocked out now, awaiting the next one, and not really ready to go up to my reserved "sleep room". It's kinda depressing, there's just a bed and a phone, the TV doesn't work, and dammit, I forgot my PDA. I might just have to go back home to get that, and a bottle of tums, too, while I'm at it. And then maybe just sleep in my own bed until my next call.

Yeah, that's what I'll do, it is.

And that was a good decision... the next call came at... 08:40. I stayed up until 02:30, expecting that I would be called momentarily. Then I slept poorly until about 04:45, the last time that I remember looking at the clock.

Right now, however, I feel pretty rested, ready to do a full days' work... and collect two days' worth of salary, of course.

The way it works is: we get 1.5 hours at OT (X1.5) for each call. So there *can* be some overlap, but on a day like today, so far, there isn't. Most of the time it takes about 15 minutes to get there, and fifteen minutes to get back home, so for a single patient that works out just about right. However, if they get bunched up, *some* people will clock out and in between patients. I can't bring myself to do that, I think that it's inherently dishonest. I do, however, clock out when I finish my work, however many patients that I have, and clock in for the next one, if there's a gap. And if I don't *know* that there'll be a next one.

Most of the exams that I do through the ER take about five minutes of table time, with about ten minutes each pre- and post-exam. Yeah, the paper/computer work takes four times the exam time....

The pre- and post-time can be cut down, of course, if there is more than one patient.

It's gonna be 99°F today, with heat indices of up to 110°F. And I'm gonna be driving the truck back and forth, of course... no AC for me today!

17:40...
Back home again, probably briefly, there are a couple hanging in the ER, but I needed to come home and get my pills and my laptop, so I told them to just call me when they're ready....

After I wrote earlier, I got called in about noon, and I've been pretty steadily busy since then. I *almost* made it out the door once, but I walked through the ER and they told me that they had a likely prospect coming in, so I sat and read a few minutes while they figgered out what they wanted to do, and by that time another likely prospect showed up....

I Also had several orders for contrast exams for floor patients, but they were all routine and will wait until Monday. I checked and made sure that they had no chances of being dismissed before then, of course, or else I would have done them today, even though that's really against policy... we only do STATs and ASAPs on the weekends. Of course, quite a few docs will over-ride the routine orders with STAT orders whenever it suits them, heh.

About 19:00 I went up to the nursing supervisor's office to get a sleep room key and then I went up to the room to get my stuff settled in. Well, the preferred bed by the window was unmade, and the phone was gone, so I went back down and complained. I was assured that all shall be fixed and I took the laptop back down to the department.

I stayed pretty busy from that point on, with a few gaps which I utilized to socialize with former coworkers, and a surprise visit from Eileen. She wasn't working, just checking her mail, and we had a good long talk before she had to leave.

The other picture for today is Joe, a longtime buddy.

Anyhoo, I finally got back upstairs about 03:00, and there was a phone outside the door, but the room hadn't been cleaned, so I thought about going home, but the other bed was OK, so there was a no-brainer decision that I made on the spot.