So long as we are on the topic of slippage (I wrote about it here), perhaps we should expound on this a bit. We are all expected to maintain a certain level of dignity. We are all supposed to maintain a certain level of modesty. We are all supposed to maintain a certain level of respect for our superiors, friends and co-workers.
Slippage: failure to maintain an expected level, fulfill a goal, meet a deadline, etc.; loss, decline, or delay; a falling off -- dictionary.com
When we are out in public, many of us try to maintain a certain level in our appearance. When we go to work, for example, we are expected to look our best, to smell our best, to wear our best smile and personality. We are supposed to be the utmost professionals when we are amongst our co-workers and, most important, our patients.
When things happen that we disagree with, when a doctor orders something we think is going to harm the patient, it is our job to bring this to light in a professional manner. When a doctor orders something stupid, it is expected that we will not complain. It is also expected that we will not complain when we disagree with an administrative decision. We, as expected, will be the utmost professionals and, to put it lightly, just do as we are told.
The gossipers will gossip. The unhappy people will complain. As I am doing my rounds through the hospital I hear these things going on, and I wouldn't necessarily call all of it slippage. There are certain people who are hotheads, and they tend to argue with every single person every single time something meets their disapproval. I would not call that slippage. I would call this disrespectful, perhaps.
When someone does something that is expected of them, it is not called slippage. When the hot head gets hot, it is not slippage because that is the standard that person has set for himself. Sure, he might not be very popular, but his being a jack ass is not slippage. When the complainers complain, when the gossipers gossip, that is not slippage either, unless it comes from an unexpected source.
Slippage, therefore, is when a person does something he that is completely out of character. Slippage might be what you would call it when a person who is normally quiet and reserved bursts out of his shell and tells you all the things he hates about his job; or a person who is respected in the community gets drunk and starts talking about how many women he has gone to be with.
Ah, to find a perfect example, one might simply look at the headlines in the newspaper. When Ted Turner ran his mouth the other day and said the world is going to be destroyed in ten years because the world is overpopulated, I would not call that slippage because we expect such nonsense from him.
Then again, when Mel Gibson rattled on about how he hates the Jews when he was drunk one night, that is slippage. We did not expect such filth from him. Sure, we might have suspected that he held such opinions, but he had made an effort to maintain a certain level of dignity, or respect prior to that one night, and had kept his mouth shut.
When you keep your mouth shut you greatly decrease your chances of slippage. When you do not drink or do drugs, you greatly diminish your opportunities for slippage. However, we all have our moments. I have had my moments. You have had your moments. We all remember our parents, or someone we loved, having their moments too. Our friends definitely have their moments too. That's life.
When our perfect example of equanimity, Dr. Cool head, got ticked off because he was working all weekend and was called every hour on a very stressful weekend at Shoreline Medical, and he blew up at the kind nurse who called him for the first time ever at 4:00 a.m., that would be a good example of slippage. It was totally out of character for him.
I can give you two of my own personal examples of slippage. For example #1, you can see my blog entry from yesterday. For example #2, I can tell you this normally reserved, humble, and greatly respected RT had just spent the greater part of the night with one young lady in respiratory distress and had just headed upstairs to take care of more short-of-breath patients, when he was paged to go back to the ER and set up a holter monitor.
Many times he had thought to himself how ridiculous it was for a doctor to order an outpatient procedure to be done in the emergency room, but, ou of respect, he grumbled to himself but not to the middle person who gave the order, and definitely not to the doctor and, most important, he was the utmost professional in front of the patient.
But not last night. Last night he provided a perfect example of slippage. Last night he stormed down the the emergency room and told the nurses and the doctor point blank that he would not be setting up "that stupid thing that shouldn't even be ordered in the emergency room."
"You mean you don't have a holter monitor," one nurse said.
"No. I have no clue if we have one or not. What I'm saying is I'm not setting one up right now period. I have a sick patient right down here that I've spend the majority of the night with, I have a Q1 hour treatment upstairs, I don't have time to spend a half hour setting up a holter."
"Well, can you just bring the holter down if you have one."
"Are you going to do it?"
"No. That's your job."
Ah, slippage. What alcohol did for Mr. Gibson's mouth being burned out did with mine. Slippage.
Later in the night, after I had reasoned with myself and had reluctantly dedicated a portion of my time to set up the holter (and was the utmost professional with the patient of course), I met these emergency room nurses up in the CCU when they transferred a patient up there.
"Hey, and thanks for your help," I said. "Oh, and sorry I was so grumpy last night."
"Oh, I didn't think you were grumpy," one of the RNs said, smiling.
"Oh yes I was," I said.
"Oh yes he was," said the second RN. "I've never seen him get upset before. He's always so calm and cool."
"It was a little slippage," I said.
We all participate in slippage from time to time. I would like anyone who has not participated in slippage to raise his or her hand. If you haven't' slipped before, that would mean you are perfect. And, as the old saying goes, perfection in itself is a flaw.
Which brings us back to that infamous RT Cave rule: We night shifters never hold what one of us does or says as a result of exhaustion or burnout against one another. Because we all slip from time to time.
So long as we don't slip too far.
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