From the IMCU float that had been sent down because we had three call ins "Jeez, it's awfully quiet, is it always like this?"
GROAN!!!
In the next hour we got a code, a minor gunshot wound, an acute MI, a patient with severe burns from a brush fire that had to be intubated and a psychotic, agitated jail clearance. Last I saw of the float she was running out of the room with the burn patient with her eyes bugging out.
Bet she won't come back.
I know it is superstitious, but we don't ever use the 'Q' word in the ER, woe be unto the person foolish enough to let it slip.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
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11 comments:
Oh NO! The Q word! The curse of the ER Nurse. I hate it when that happens.
Oh, me too. I call it the 'library word'...I feel like I have been cursed when someone says it. Just like I feel when I, or someone else, says the name of a patient who is really difficult. It's like we are summoning them, and they will show up in the ER just because we uttered their name.
The lengths we'll go through not to say the "Q" word are amazing. It's akin to saying "MacBeth" in a theatre. Nursing can be such a superstitious career!
Just as you never utter the name of a frequent flyer lest you conjure him/her up (don't they always show up within 12 hours of mention?) never. Ever. Ever. Utter the words "quiet" or "slow" or "bored"/"boring" lest the gods of Emergency Medicine bring down upon you plagues of codes, drug seekers, traumas, and laboring mothers. 10 people will immediately sign in at triage all at once and the flow will not stop until at least the end of your shift. It's simply the way of things; restoring balance among the EDs everywhere; because, you see, it is not fair for it to be quiet anywhere unless it is quiet everywhere. If the gods of Emergency Medicine know, they will disburse things more equitably. The only way to prevent this occurrence is to hush and enjoy it for as long as it lasts.
You'd think a nurse would know better. But I still haven't figured out how to keep the patients/families from saying it out loud.
It's the same for dispatch. We don't mention the Q word, or say that it wasn't (the B word).
Good Sunday afternoon ER Nursey !
Auggggggh ! The dread "Q" word and its amazing powers of non-stop diasters lurking around the corner !
Loving Annie
We never, ever mutter the Q word in L&D. The same goes for speaking specifically about a trouble-some patient - guaranteed she will present to L&D!!
The last time I went to the ER it was wall to wall and people were waiting 8 hours or more. I had to leave and come back in the morning. I found out that our ER is the Q word at 6:00 am. When I mentioned that fact to the triage nurse, she scrunched up her face and hissed "shhhhhhhhhh!". Now I know why.
We avoid the "Q" word in NICU, too.
Amen on the "Q" word...it's not something you say on a psych unit either!!
Good to know there are others who ban the "Q" word..........calls for mandatory squirt of soap to mouth for such potty-mouth talk !!!
Why is it that the "floats" or out
of dept. people are always Sooo
suprised when the real E/R isn't like the one on TV........
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