It's been awhile since I reported on the NICU. It's been one of those variable times - it seems as though the babies in all bays are having up and down days. Today, for example, I walked into work to see the surgical team moving their carts to one of the rooms which is right down from the lab.
What??? That little one was just fine (well, okay, as fine as a baby in NICU gets) when I left on Thursday; in fact, I'd done one of his draws that day. And now he's getting ready for surgery?
Luckily, one of the nurses who realizes that we worry and care about the babies like they do was there and she filled me in.
The little guy - who WAS doing fine on Thursday - had one of the many sorts of episodes that NICU babies can have. In this case, he filled his diaper. Problem was, there was a whole lot of blood in it, too. Further investigation showed that part of the bowel had twisted and gone necrotic. So, the family was called in and the decision for surgery was made. They were supposed to remove the necrotic bowel and do an ostomy. The surgery was still in progress when I left the floor at 8:00. All I know is that I dispensed blood products off and on through the rest of my shift, so I know he made it through the surgery. I'll report his progress when I know more myself.
Edit: When I came in this morning, the room was empty. Though he made it through the surgery, he failed rapidly, his heart not able to take the abuse of such a tramatic surgery. His mother made the decision to let him go quickly and easily instead of wearing down over the hours.
My Warrior Baby is growing. She doesn't look so much like a bony little bird any more. Last report I had was that she was weighing in at 896 grams, or approximately, 1 pound, 15 oz. She's charmed the heck out of one of our new Lab Scientists. Would you believe he grabbed the req for himself this morning and ran off to draw her before I could get there? Sheesh!!! He'd better be treating my girl right! LOL
The little one who had Miss Nurse MakeUp is in isolation. She has gotten C-diff, which is pretty darned awful for anyone to have, let alone a wee creature like her. I hope she'll get through it very soon.
In matters of personnel, I'm gonna ask you all, my readers, for an opinion. We have an overnight Lab Tech who is not doing his job even close to snuff, so to speak. He told me today that between classes, work, family, etc., he hadn't slept for 72 hours; so, he was sleeping in between patients. Even worse, he'd laid out the reqs for the day, and had not pulled out timed draws for troughs, nor figured out that there were duplicate reqs. Luckily, we caught the duplicates - the trough, however, was over an hour late by the time we discovered it in the pile of reqs.
I'll take perhaps 10% of the blame for it. You see, I'm a firm believer that I shouldn't have to come into work on my shift and double check the work of a co-worker. My partner on the same shift does this every day; she does it because she doesn't like the way the overnight people attach the labels we're to put on the tubes after they're drawn. It annoys the snot out of them, and it annoys the snot out of me, too, when I've gotten to work, set up the day and then she comes in and redoes it. (Yes, I've already talked to her about it. She's trying hard to respect other folks' attempts to put things together, even though it is not her way.)
So, I try not to do the same thing. I may have to change my mind in this particular tech's case, though, because these are not the first errors that have happened on his watch.
But, sleeping on the job, coupled with his requisition errors, and that he disappeared from the NICU and went back to Critical Care before we were done this morning grates on me. I don't know whether to say something or leave it be. What's your opinion, readers?
It's time for me to get things lined up for tomorrow; this is my weekend to work, so bedtime does come earlier than usual for a Saturday night.
I haven't gotten any wedding pictures back that I can share yet. I haven't forgotten!
See you next time!
4 comments:
I don't know much about lab work, but it seems to me if the person is unable to do their job correctly then they're endangering others.....
Glad to hear WB is holdin' her own and putting on more weight =)
I think that he needs to be reported.
Good to hear WB is doing better. And, sorry for the loss of another wee one. God bless all of them and the families.
Aww hell that saddens me the wee one didn't make it. :-( I am happy though, that WBgirl is doing better.
As for the tech, seems to me if his performance on the job is affecting anyone in a dangerous way, it NEEDS to be reported. If what he does isn't necessarily dangerous but annoying as hell, he needs to be approached about it. Like Trace, I don't know anything about the job so it's hard to make an educated call on it.
As it turns out, I did sit down with the supervisor yesterday and chatted with him about the sleeping tech. The supervisor took notes, told me the tech's performance evaluation is due next month and he was glad I'd brought it to his attention since he knows I don't do so out of vindictiveness. He said that the problem was, that no one could "prove it", so I said that if I needed to, I'd take a picture with my camera phone if need be. Other folks have said that employees have gotten fired for sleeping on the job, so I think the tech had better get a clue. I'd hate to see him lose his job, though as he has a family, but I certainly don't enjoy seeing the badly placed heelsticks he makes when he is out trying to draw when he's not quite awake.
So, thank you for your comments which helped me make a decision on what to do.
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