On call frustrations

From several years ago:

8AM:

Nurse: "I'm paging you to tell you know that you need to write a prescription for this patient to have meds to take with him to go home for a day tomorrow."

Me: "My patient upstairs is having chest pain. I'll do it later, okay?"

Nurse: "Okay."

Me: "But I don't know that patient, so have the medications available so I know what to write for."


An hour later:

Nurse: "I'm paging you to tell you know that you need to write a prescription for this patient to have meds to take with him to go home for a day tomorrow."

Me: "I didn't forget, but I'm in the middle of something. Do you need me to come down right now?"

Nurse: "No, just don't forget. You have to do this today."

Me: "I'll be down in half an hour."


Half an hour later:

Me: "Here I am! Hi, Nurse, what do I need to fill out?"

Nurse: "Hi, I'm glad you're here." (Hands me chart, which contains no helpful info)

Me: "What do I do with this? I don't know this patient and I've never worked on this floor before... what medications does he need? Where's the form to order the medications?"

Nurse: "I don't know the answer to any of those questions."

Me: "You paged me twice to come down here... and you don't have ANYTHING ready for me to fill out?"

Nurse: "Why don't you sit here and twiddle your thumbs for fifteen minutes while I try to figure it out."