I was called to a patient's room to give a breathing treatment. Four hours earlier I had given a treatment to this patient, and observed agonal breathing with long periods of apnea. The patient was obtunded. The patient was also a DNR patient (do not resuscitate).
I was already grumbling under my breath as I approached the nurses station, and hoped that I could prevent myself from stating my opinion verbally.
"You guys called for a treatment?" I said as I approached the nurse's station. Three nurses looked up from their respective computers and squinted at me.
"Yes," one of the nurses said. "We need a treatment on Mrs. Millen in 212-2."
You mean you WANT a treatment, I thought. This patient never needed any of my services. "Is the patient having bronchospasms?"
"I'm not sure," she said as she hopped out of her chair.
"Then why do you think she needs a treatment?" Why did I just ask that? I'm only asking for trouble.
"THE PATIENT ISN'T BREATHING," she wailed. "SHE NEEDS TO BREATHE."
"It ain't gonna make her breathe," I mumbled ruefully under my breath as I walked away from the station toward the room. I looked back at the station and couldn't determine by the nurses actions whether or not she heard me. The other two nurses still hadn't budged.
Wow! It's an Albuterol epiphany. Not only does this medicine resolve bronchospasms, it also works to actually cause a person to take in a normal inspiration.
Voila. We have a new 'olin. What should we call it? Ventilatolin (not to be confused with Ventilatorolin). If you need the isomer version, then we have Breathonex.
My coworker prefers to call it Itstolateolin. That works too.
6 comments:
WOW!! what a lot of stories you have in this job! it great! so what would have been the alternative in your preference? should the nurses not have called on you??
maria
Common sense. That's the alternative. IMO.
The pt. expired about three hours after my shift ended.
I always enjoy your perspective. As a naive asthmatic, I had never considered that a neb could cause a non breather to breath. It's reassuring if nothing else!
I find it's more productive to find humor in something than to complain. However, as you can tell from my writings, I still find myself crossing that fine line at times.
Hey you could call it Bipapolin.
Anyways I like how you can hold you toungue, had to of been hard. I personally like to embarass a nurse if they call for something stupid, but only certain nurses.
yep..in my 20 year RT career,I thought I heard them all.Until I was called to EC to give a 10mg treatment to help relieve pulmonary hypertension.The doctor thought since it works to relax smooth muscles of the airways that it would work to relax the vessels clamped for PHTN.The pt later died that night,and the physician was let go from the hospital because it was proven in court that she hinged it all on the Albuterol tx.
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