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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/KQHele on 2024-10-07 15:13:43+00:00.
I’m a clinical nurse in physical rehabilitation in Australia. I will never forget a lot of our residents (junior doctors) for being brilliant, but one resident I will never forget because he was awful. One fateful Thursday, I overheard him complaining to the consultant and registrar, “It’s boring here. There’s nothing to do.” I know it’s not the most high-energy place to be, and it’s definitely not for everyone, but I thought that was a little rude and snide, to say the least.
This same doctor, only a day or two later, was asked to rechart a prn (as-needed) pain order for a patient who was having a lot of pain for acute gout. We had already had to contact the Emergency Department Medical Registrar (we call them the ED Med Reg for short) overnight the night before for a phone order for her pain relief as there were no spaces left on her last prn order and, at the time, we did not have a doctor on call overnight at the campus I work at.
Instead of recharting the order, the resident (who, remember, was apparently so bored and had so little to do that he complained both the registrar and the consultant about it) instead chose to write a sticky note telling the nurses to “just call the ED Med Reg for a phone order if she has pain overnight” and stuck it on top of the patient’s previous prn pain relief order. It would have taken him less time to rewrite the order. Not to mention as if the ED Med Reg doesn’t have enough work to do in the literal Emergency department!
Seeing that note as the night duty nurse on charge and remembering that snide little remark of his made my blood boil. But it was, of course, nighttime and long past the resident’s knock-off time. So when the poor patient inevitably had pain overnight, I had no choice but to call. The ED Med Reg just so happened to be the same doctor as the night before and, rightfully, was a little confused (and slightly annoyed) we were calling for the same phone order two nights in a row when surely the treating team should have written a new order during the day.
He asked whether we had asked them to do so, and I told him about the sticky note and even read it to him. I remember a beat of silence on the other end of the phone before he said, “Right.” Before giving me the phone order. I thanked him, apologised for having to disturb him, and went to help my patient.
When I came on the next night, lo and behold! The resident had written up a new prn order. In fact, we never saw a sticky note like that again, and prn orders were rewritten in a timely manner. I don’t know if that doctor ever got spoken to about his smug little sticky note, but I like to think he got a good talking to. Just because my patients aren’t in ICU or ED doesn’t make them and their health unimportant! They’re still in hospital and deserve proper in-patient healthcare!!