the Airing of the Grievances

I'm a little late with this...Festivus was officially yesterday, but I've been busy.  So I have to do this today.  Yes, its time for the "Airing of the Grievances", one of the hallmarks of any Festivus celebration.

So, of course, my grievances will be geared toward my job. (what a shock)

#1 I understand the need for more efficiency and clarity when it comes to charting, thus the coming of the electronic medical record. Hey I really don't mind it, except it has done nothing to make things more efficient.  It has added lots of time to charting. As time goes on, "tHe EvIl ChAnGerS" (see Dec 12 blog post), are coming up with more and more blanks to fill in. My job has mostly become blank filleriner.  So, don't lie and say EMRs improve health care.

#2 I understand the need for more safety when administering medications, thus the invention of the drug scanning device. Every medication we give now requires us to log into the computer, scan the wristband,
scan the med, chart the med...no big deal right? Wrong. ER nurses often give multiple meds. (You can never give too many meds right?)  We can give compazine, benadryl, zofran, dilaudid for the simplest case of nausea and vomitting.  Safety comes at the expense of more time consumed.

#3 Once again, I understand the need for more safety when administering medication, thus the pharmacist these days check every med that we administer.  They have to approve it before it appears in the pyxis and we can take it out.  Wonderful right? No mistakes. Wrong.  It can take, depending of the day, up to 45 minutes to get the approval.  Delaying care, making care less efficient.  We can override a lot of meds, but no oral meds, including things like tylenol, motrin, aspirin.  We can't be trusted to take those out without approval.

#4 I appreciate when I get a gift from someone in an effort to show appreciation for what I do through the year. However, when that gift costs about $1 and bears the logo of the group giving it out, I'm sorry, perhaps I am ungrateful, but don't bother. I break my butt for our ER and you and this is the thanks I get? Another nail in the coffin.

Thus ends this years Airing of the Grievances. Good night.