Just For Fun

[jcdayaz]

I still love the phone call from the "smarter than us" nurses requesting "irritated" blood. (Meaning, of course irradiated). Also "irradicated" cracks me up. Also autologous being pronounced as autojelous or otolojous. Seriously?

One time, years ago, I politely told a nurse that we did not supply otolojous blood. Perhaps I could supply her patient with autologous blood? The saddest part of this story is that she didn't get it. She asked if it was the same thing as otolojous.

[jcdayaz]

I have a thought....perhaps a new thread named "Scary things nurses/doctors have done" is in order. What does everyone think?

[Malcolm Needs ☆]

I have a thought....perhaps a new thread named "Scary things nurses/doctors have done" is in order. What does everyone think?

Good idea, but it'll be a HUGE thread.

Better ask Cliff how big the site can go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:rolleyes::rolleyes:

[TimOz]

Here is a thought.

I sometimes find it a little uncomfortable Nurse "bashing" as I find many are great and dedicated people and I would hate to do their job, especically under the conditions and structures they work under. I find Doctor bashing a little easier as my Father (who was a Dr himself) was killed by medical neglicence in a Hospital by a disorganised team of his colleagues.

I find that maybe 30% of nurses and maybe 10% of General practioners are excellent. I cannot put a number on Drs in a Hospital environment because it seems to very between Hospitals and countires but it is a low number. I can homnestly say that I have only ever met 3 clinicians who I would want to care for my daughter - and one of them is deceased.

So what about Immunohaematologists? I think 60% are excellent. Is this bias or is their something special about Med Techs? When teaching, I say that Immunohaematology as a scientific discipline attractes a certain type. They are almost always dedicated, careful, organised and conservative. Am I right?

[Malcolm Needs ☆]

IMO, Yes.

[jcdayaz]

Here is a thought.

I sometimes find it a little uncomfortable Nurse "bashing" as I find many are great and dedicated people and I would hate to do their job, especically under the conditions and structures they work under. I find that maybe 30% of nurses and maybe 10% of General practioners are excellent.

So what about Immunohaematologists? I think 60% are excellent. Is this bias or is their something special about Med Techs? When teaching, I say that Immunohaematology as a scientific discipline attractes a certain type. They are almost always dedicated, careful, organised and conservative. Am I right?

Yes, there are a few good nurses. But 3 out of 10 is not an acceptable percentage in my book. I might have rated the 60% good Immunohematologist number a bit higher. Assuming they are Blood Bankers only and not cross-trained, of course.

I don't think you are biased in your opinion. There is indeed, in my opinion, something different about a Blood Banker. Again, I mean a REAL Blood Banker. I'm not sure what makes us different from other MT's, but something does!

[rcollins]

"They are almost always dedicated, careful, organised and conservative. Am I right?"

I definitely think these qualities make the best blood bankers. And I think that people who cross-train can work to be good blood bankers. Some people, no matter what their job title, are "blood bankers at heart." And some people will never be blood bankers and will never care to be! (poor schmucks!)

I also join in to have a laugh at the clinical staff but I agree with Tim, I would never EVER want their job. Kudos to the dedicated nurses who respect lab people and try to understand our job. It's easy to forgive ignorance if it is genuine and the person is actually willing to learn from you.

[John C. Staley]

Over the years I have fondly described blood bankers as "paranoid hysterics who spend their lives thinking up worse case scenerios and then living as though they happen everyday". I once said this to an AABB assessor who became quite incensed. Rest assured that I tend to fall under this description. We all do to varying degrees. Just keep smiling.

:glomp:

[L106]

My comments: I enjoyed and appreciated Tim's post, and agree with the vast majority of it. However, I would rank less than 30% of the nurses as "excellent" and, as Tim, I recognize how challenging (and unpleasant) many of their duties are. I probably have a slightly higher opinion of physicians than Tim. I agree with his categorization of blood bankers as dedicated, careful, organized and conservative, but I would also add the terms crisis-managers and"sticklers for details."

I have worked at a huge medical center (with a dedicated BB staff) and currently work in a medium-size hospital where all the lab staff rotate (through most, if not all) lab departments. Many of our rotating staff (but not all) are excellent blood bankers, even if they are scheduled in BB only a couple days per month. (And we are a "full-service" BB with Ab Id, absorptions, elutions, etc.) I am amazed at how they can maintain their competencies and function so well in multiple areas, and for that I truly appreciate and respect them. (Many of them must be as rcollins says "blood bankers at heart", even though most of their time is spent in other areas of the lab, and many of them are better blood bankers than some of the SBBs I have worked with.)

[Malcolm Needs ☆]

and many of them are better blood bankers than some of the SBBs I have worked with.)

I agree with this (although I must admit that I misread the middle consonant for vowel the first time I read it)!

:D:D

[L106]

Oh, Malcolm.......you are awful!!!!!!

[Malcolm Needs ☆]

Well, rather like a child with selective hearing, I think I must suffer with selective dyslexia!!!!!!!!!!

:rolleyes::rolleyes:

[TimOz]

Malcolm, Freud would have a field day!

By the way, have you seen this:

Dyslexia: a novel cause of ABO mishaps in Palestine (p 269-270)

Younis Abed AL-Wahhab M. Skaik

Published Online: Dec 28 2009 9:05AM

DOI: 10.1111/j.1537-2995.2009.02455.x

Volume 50, Issue 1, 2010.

Pages: 269–270

[Mabel Adams]

Re: the idea of a thread for scary nurse doctor stories, I keep thinking I would like to direct our congressmen to some of this so they get a real idea of some of the needs of health care reform in the US--like improved quality and efficiency. And maybe required med school classes in humility.

And, Malcolm, you are putting an undue strain on the world's supply of vowels anyway with your verbosity and the British English spellings. I don't know that we can allow you to be slipping them into otherwise innocuous abbreviations just for your prurient pleasure.

[TimOz]

Hi Mabel,

Using your logic, Americans are using up the dwindling supply of "Z"s along with the world's supply of oil. Lyze or finalize.

And as for the English being more verbose than Americans - RAOTFLOL HA HA HA HA

[Malcolm Needs ☆]

Sometimes, the NHSBT gets complaints if we take too long sorting out the specificity of an antibody and then providing cross-matched blood from a sample from a hospital who send it in because they cannot sort out the specificity of the antibody themselves and cannot cross-match the blood even when the antibody specificity is sorted and when provided with antigen negative blood - but we can live with that.

Yesterday, however, I heard of a real goody!

One of my colleagues (at another Laboratory) received a sample from a hospital requesting 4 units of cross-matched blood as soon as possible (always useful, as what does ASAP actually mean). There was no telephone call from the hospital.

Anyway, they dutifully got on with identifying the antibody, cross-matching the blood and sending over to them.

They then got an official complaint because they had done the work too quickly and sent over the blood before it was required!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some people you just cannot please.

:angered::angered:

[jcdayaz]

I agree with this (although I must admit that I misread the middle consonant for vowel the first time I read it)!

:D:D

MALCOLM, THIS ONE IS PRICELESS and, unfortunately very true!!

[adiescast]

Sometimes, the NHSBT gets complaints if we take too long sorting out the specificity of an antibody and then providing cross-matched blood from a sample from a hospital who send it in because they cannot sort out the specificity of the antibody themselves and cannot cross-match the blood even when the antibody specificity is sorted and when provided with antigen negative blood - but we can live with that.

Yesterday, however, I heard of a real goody!

One of my colleagues (at another Laboratory) received a sample from a hospital requesting 4 units of cross-matched blood as soon as possible (always useful, as what does ASAP actually mean). There was no telephone call from the hospital.

Anyway, they dutifully got on with identifying the antibody, cross-matching the blood and sending over to them.

They then got an official complaint because they had done the work too quickly and sent over the blood before it was required!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some people you just cannot please.

:angered::angered:

Did you tell them that you were sorry, but your ESP device had a small error and your reading of the future was off by a couple of hours. I am sure the ESP tech will be able to fix it soon.

[Brenda K Hutson]

donellda - Welcome to the club!!

A few months ago (or a year or so??) we switched to physicians placing their own orders. Yikes!! The list of problems and things that need to be cancelled every day goes on and on. One of our biggest problems is that admitting physician, attending physician, consulting physicians, and residents don't look to see what has already been ordered, so they order duplicates (then they get mad when we cancelled their duplicate order instead of one of the other doc's order.) Plus, they figured out ways around the system, such as going to another floor and calling in the order (so they don't have to enter it into the computer themselves.) When we have to consult a physician about some confusing/ nonsensical order, we are often told "Well, you should know what I mean." (Yeah, right.) The docs are making our unit clerks look better & better!

However, I think the blame has to be shared with our nursing team who designed the screens, the ordering procedures/protocol, etc., and are responsible for training. I think what they designed is often not very logical and the training is weak.

A good unit clerk (or lab secretary) are worth their weight in gold!!!

Wow, I thought we were the only place with major Physician ordering problems (and this is my 6th Hospital of my career and I have never had this problem before). They designed a box on the order screen which states that is a Blood Type and Antibody Screen are not displayed to the right, they need to order one (not exact wording). They won't even take a "second" to read that box; thus we receive more duplicate orders than legitimate! Also the problem with one Physician not reading the orders placed by others also taking care of the patient. But yours is worse with Physicians getting upset that you cancelled "their" test and going to another floor to call in orders! Unbelievable! And the problem is, their lack of willingness to "learn" how to order correctly, costs not only the Transfusion Service a LOT of time, but also the Nurses (who receive many calls from us, asking them to Order a Type and Screen to go with the Packed Cells the MD Ordered), as well as phlebotomy, never knowing if a given order is legitimate and whether or not the patient needs to be drawn again.

I think it would take Medical Director intervention to even have a "hope" of changing the culture and ours is not willing to approach this issue. One Manager in a Critical Care area suggested I write up a Hospital Error report everytime I get an erroneous order; that the Chief of Staff "would" then listen. First of all, given the number of erroneous orders, I do not even have that kind of time! Second, without Medical Director support, the Physicians would likely complain to the Medical Director, who would then tell me to "cease and decist."

Brenda Hutson

[Brenda K Hutson]

I have a thought....perhaps a new thread named "Scary things nurses/doctors have done" is in order. What does everyone think?

Actually, I think when I opened this Thread, it stated "funny or scary." I think we are getting plenty of both.

Brenda Hutson

[yolis76]

Oh, sorry to keep responding to my own post, but your responses remind me of things (and after 26 years in the field, I have heard a lot).

I once had a patient with a positive antibody screen and I needed more specimen for the antibody work-up. I called the floor and told the Nurse we needed 2 more EDTA tubes on the patient. A little while later a biohazard ziploc bag appeared; guess what was in it? 2 EDTA tubes (NO BLOOD in them). Upon calling her, she said she sent what I requested.. for real!!!

Brenda Hutson, CLS(ASCP)SBB

I've had this exact same thing happen to me. I was amazed!

[yolis76]

Well seeing how some people have confessed to embarrassing mistakes on their part, I will confess mine. In my defense, I was not even an MT student yet, but I had started to work in the Micro lab doing receiving samples and doing simple setups. I started working there over the summer before the MT course began so I was very very fresh....

A doctor and her resident walk in and hand me a sample and say: I'd like EB testing done on this please"

And I look at her and say: Ebola virus?

No she says, Epstein Barr Virus... how stupid did I feel?!

[Eoin]

I remembered a good one from my younger days in Oz. We had a new tech who thought he was God's gift to the world of blood transfusion ( a know all in Oz parlance).

A step-up transformer which had been supplied with a centrifuge died, so I sent him to the workshop for a transformer with a supply of 240V. I rang the workshop to say he was on the way over. They kindly filled a large box with old bolts etc - sealed it with duct tape and stuck a wire with a bend in it out of the top with a label to say to keep the wire pointing to the west. When he arrived they asked him did he know about electricity and magnetic field and he told them (as usual) he was well up on that having done physics at college. They told him it must not point north or south or all the electricity would be lost. By then, the whole lab was at the upper window watching him come around the corner of the block next door to the lab (only way back from the workshop). It was hilarious watching him carefully turn around this very large and very heavy and awkward box at the corner - to keep the wire pointing west.

He wasn't amused when he came in and found the whole lab almost on the floor in gales of laughter - but he did quieten down a bit for a while. His nickname after that was spark (short for bright spark). He did eventually see the funny side of it and went on to become a valued member of satff.

Cheers

Eoin

[Dr. Pepper]

I had an embarassing moment next door to our lab in Endoscopy, where I was on the table awaiting my first colonoscopy, that rite of passage for 50 year-olds. There was a TV screen that showed this folded, convoluted passageway that disappeared into a mysterious dark hole in the middle of the screen. The walls of the passageway were covered with tiny, fingerlike projections. The anesthesiologist walked in and I said, "So that's what a colon looks like on the inside. Cool!" He looked at me with great pity and said, "No, that's the terrycloth towel I put over the camera."

[rcollins]

I had an embarassing moment next door to our lab in Endoscopy, where I was on the table awaiting my first colonoscopy, that rite of passage for 50 year-olds. There was a TV screen that showed this folded, convoluted passageway that disappeared into a mysterious dark hole in the middle of the screen. The walls of the passageway were covered with tiny, fingerlike projections. The anesthesiologist walked in and I said, "So that's what a colon looks like on the inside. Cool!" He looked at me with great pity and said, "No, that's the terrycloth towel I put over the camera."

This is hilarious!! And something I would do...