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Thursday, March 26, 2009

The smartest doctors in the world: part 2

Going along with what I wrote yesterday about the doctors here at Shoreline Medical being among the smartest in the world. I was written up in February because I placed a patient on 2lpm nasal cannula, and her sat was 94% on that 2lpm.

Now, if you're like me you might be doing a double take as you read over that, and doctors who work for inferior institutions like Butterworth in Grand Rapids or the so-called elite institution up in Ann Arbor might do the same, but the doctors here at Shoreline Medical KNOW better.

Yep, you heard right. While I thought I was doing the right thing by making sure the patient only had as much oxygen as she needed -- which was 2lpm - I was WRONG.

That doctor who was taking care of that patient that night wrote an order for 4lpm -- not 2lpm. She was smart enough to know that that 2lpm was not going to be enough oxygen.

Of course nothing bad happened to that patient in the 8 hours she was on 2lpm during my shift, but that was only because I was lucky. Thankfully that doctor came in right after my shift ended and spotted my medical error and turned that flow up right away.

Man, my heart was just a fluttering as I realized my error. If that patient wouldn't have been turned up to 4lpm when she was, something awful might have happened. So it was only justified that she make the day shift RN write me up for thinking.

On the variance I was forced to write: "I am sorry. I will never think again."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Waddaya mean ya don't get to titrate, what the hell are they thinking???? I'll bet she was Obese, (copd, chf, cad)...Oxygen isn't always our friend!! Damnded Drs anyhow.