Three a.m. Wake-up Call

Due to repeated requests from my admiring public, I thought I would fill you in on the last couple of days at my new job. *grins*

Oh, gawds, folks, that three a.m. alarm just plain SUCKS. But, if you want to know the truth, it doesn't hurt quite as much as the 4 a.m. alarm. I think I'm in a different sleep cycle then - don't seem to be getting the REM sleep woozies that I got from being yanked out of dreamland. But, I figured out that I've got to rouse myself enough to shut the alarm off and sit myself on the bed - none of that "The alarm is set ten minutes fast...I can hit snooze and get a few more." Just isn't going to work. Must make effort to haul ass out of bed on the first blare.

In order to walk out the door no later than 3:35 a.m., it's become necessary to shower and wash my hair at night. Since a good hot shower is my "coffee" in the mornings, this is not amusing, but the alternative of getting out of bed at 2:30 is even less appealing. Hell, once upon a time when dinosaurs ruled the earth, I'd have just been thinking about going home!

But, back to the job...

Monday was Day One. I spent most all of it in the Path Lab, parked in front of a computer, reading a whole bunch of "required" stuff. Things like, What To Do If The Pneumatic Tube System Breaks Down, or What To Do If a Biohazard Bag Breaks in the Pneumatic Tube System. *snores*

But, there was also some interesting stuff dealing with the babies. Just enough to make me tremendously excited about this opportunity - and pretty much terrified at the same time.

Now, my 'old' boss Kathy is in charge of preliminary training on this venture. So, she had to make sure I knew officially about some of these things, thus she came in at 6:30 to go over everything and sign me off on as much as possible.

I looked at her and said simply, "I NEED COFFEE!"

We did as much of our training as we could in the cafeteria. LOL

Back to the lab, and did some hands on stuff in IPR which is the computer programming used to work with blood products.

I may be odd, but it gives me a weird thrill when I am asked to log onto the computer and I see that I've been given a whole new boatload of security clearance. And, there it was. Wow! I'm not surprised, but I just plain didn't know it would be there in advance. Typically, it's been 'we'll have to get you signed up for that'. Proactivism at Big Hospital Teaching School? What kind of winds of change is this? LOL

When we'd finally gotten through all those things, Kathy took me on a tour of the blood bank laboratory. That was totally interesting, seeing how blood products are put together for use in various capacities. I can see why it takes some education to do that job, for sure!

After that tour, we walked over to the Critical Care Lab. And, amazingly enough, they already had added my security code to the system so I could get in the door with my badge. My new immediate boss made sure I knew a couple of things, like where to punch in and other basic necessities to start the day.

Then off to the NICU where we did one more quick tour of the area. We also wanted to check on computer availability. Neither of us knew whether the updated NICU pods had computerized rooms, or if we would have to bring in a portable computer for some things. It was good to know that each room has their own computer, so that is one burden I won't have to wonder about. I met one of the folks who will be overseeing my work. He had such a strong handshake that I had to take a moment to wonder how such a strong guy gentles himself down to work with those tiny souls.

My next thought was, "no problem". It's the people who have limp handshakes that also seem to have absolutely no control over their "touch" mechanism. Just my experience, folks! No hate mail, please! *winks*

Of course, I had had to leave the BHTS to move my car from the ramp to the commuter lot, so there went my half hour break, plus a little more. If they don't like it, they're going to have to get Parking and Transportation's head out of their ass.

The NICU currently has RSV. That means about half the rooms are complete isolation rooms, but for the most part we don't even step *into* a room without having a pair of gloves on. But, I won't be over there for two weeks at least, unless I move right along and impress the folks with my amazing ability to learn new stuff.

I got all but two articles read for the training, so I'm all set with that part of things. So, I started in the Critical Care Lab this morning.

My former team member and trainee, R will be carrying almost the same schedule as me, so we'll be working the same weekends, and most days together. However, she works 3rd shift, so I will, in effect, be relieving her when I come in.

It was nice to know someone when I got there this morning. You might remember, I'm the last one of the new hires to start since they waited to start me after vacation. I don't intend to let that delay keep me from being caught up with them quickly, though. I know a lot of this stuff already; I didn't need to start from square one like several of the others did.

But, I was absolutely NOT prepared for the sight I saw when I walked in there this morning. I'd been told the biggest part of the day in Critical Care Lab was at 4 a.m. My brain had not comprehended exactly what that meant.

It meant that at my point of impact, there were between 50 and 80 samples waiting to be processed, and several nurses waiting in line to pick up blood products for transfusion.

And, I had had no training on how to accession any of this stuff and was totally helpless to be of any use.

Pat was entering things like mad. Plus, other responsibilities include accepting incoming blood products from blood bank and either refrigerating them for later pickup, or transferring them immediately to one of the OR suites. Plus, there is another tube system that brings samples in from all other areas of the hospital. In other words, we have four tube systems coming and going: General Hospital, Labor and Delivery, Blood Bank, and Operating Room Suites. Can we say, "Oh shit!" boys and girls?

I finally figured out I could help R the most by opening the bags, removing the samples and putting them on ice till they could be checked in. Then, as she entered stuff, I pulled samples and matched them up with the requisitions.

Once things slowed down, she began to show me what I would need to do. Gotta pack my brain with some new codes. For example, an arterial blood gas is an ABG and a venous one is a VBG. It's simple and there's not many of them, but it's still stuff I've never had to use before.

And, now I understand why I'm so damned anal about paperwork. Nobody else seems to be. So, we have to make constant phone calls asking what time a sample was drawn, who the doctor was, if it was drawn by the respiratory therapist, or the nurse, and why oh why don't you have the right CLP number for the doctors? Why would you put the CLP number down for doctors who don't even work at the hospital any longer? HMMMM?????

So, most of the errors I made today were due to overlooking things I'm not used to looking for on a req. After you make enough phone calls, you learn to look at the reqs a lot differently. And, this means I'll be talking to Kathy to make certain I let them know what things must be looked for on those reqs. There's one thing in particular that we'd been told was not important (as phlebs) to put on those reqs when we draw...and it's costing the department money. Gotta fix that. Nursing has been getting a whole lot of credit for draws they don't do.

CCL is a feast or famine lab. I really *can* take my knitting to work with me and expect to be able to work on it throughout the day. I'm really not one for farting around on the job, surfing the Internet and such, but it absolutely drove me crazy to have nothing to do for long stretches of time. And, seriously, there's *nothing* to do at certain times.

The schedule is set up so that, for example, R and I will take care of the brunt of the bulk of samples. At 6, one of us will go upstairs to a.m. Phlebotomy to help the morning team. (some folks are crabby about that - I'm not, for it's not every day and this way I'll be able to keep my adult skills up to date.) Another person comes in at 6 a.m. I think there will be some changes to that once I get trained. It may be that two of us will go to a.m. Phlebotomy to help out. We'll see how that ends up working out.

Today the 6 a.m. girl came in, and resented my presence all day long. Why? Because I kept taking the samples and checking them in, for I will have to work alone this weekend. I don't know the girl's name, else I'd assign her an initial, but she was shocked that the powers that be had put me in CCL right away without making me work two weeks in the Core Lab. Heh heh. She was surprised that I had prior experience at the hospital.

And, by 6:20, she was complaining about how hungry she was, and how tired she was. "Can I go take a nap?" The urge to bitch slap her was there. Don't WHINE, dammit! Especially not to someone who has been up far longer than you!

The day went fairly quickly, except for not having anything to do with my hands during the slow times. I'll make sure and take something to knit with me on Thursday, though. Maybe even something to read. Might be a good way to catch up on some back magazines and such. But, I'm off tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to that day off already. I'll have a five day stretch after that, though. Nothing off till next Tuesday, and then a three day weekend for Memorial Day. And that holiday schedule is already jam-packed.

So, there you have it. The beginnings of my journey as a Lab Tech. And now, once again, it's getting really close to bedtime. Or at least a power nap!