My Quote of the week

For the few of you who stumble across my blog, I'm sorry I haven't been updating lately. I've been computer-less for the last month and some change. My little boy decided to spill water all over our laptop. Oh well, you can't really get mad at a 14 month old.

"The psychologist is really upset that these tests weren't completed." This is by far my favorite quote of the week. I'll give you a little back story. I got a phone call from our psych unit. The psych tech informs me that several labs were ordered in the E.R. but were not drawn, and therefore not completed. Evidently, Patients coming into the E.R. for psych evaluations have to be medically cleared before being sent to the unit. Part of that evaluation is several lab tests.

The Psych tech informs me that I need to come to the unit and draw this patient NOW!, because the psychologist is very upset. Here is my list of problems with this statement.

1. I don't draw blood, I'm more than willing to transfer you to someone who does.

2. No psych tech is ever going to tell me what to do and when to do it, with any type of authoritative tone.

3. Informing me that the psychologist is very mad about something, is tantamount to telling me that the dermatologist is upset about something. Please explain to me why I care if a fucking counselor is upset about something. A psychologist can't even order lab tests, and There's no way in hell he could even interpret anything beyond a drug level. If someone told me an ER DR. was upset about it, I'd probably take care of the problem. But really, a psychologist?

I guess it's a bit of an ego trip to distinguish between a psych tech / psychologist and a Real nurse/doctor telling me they're upset about something. Oh well, I'll live with the fact that I think I'm better educated than a psych tech, and know more about medicine than a psychologist.

There's a hierarchy in a hospital, and in general I'm at the bottom of the totem poll. We're the worst paid professionals in a hospital. My degree is just as difficult as a nursing degree, in some cases it's tougher, why on average am I being paid several dollars an hour less? No matter how much I hate this little ladder of importance, it exists, but it will be a cold day in hell when a psych tech tells me what to do.

I'm a bit biased to begin with, I really think psychology in general is a crack-pot pseudo-science. And in all honesty, I don't take care of a test as quickly if I know it's just another E.R. visit for a psych evaluation. Why On earth is being crazy a medical emergency? So please don't bring in a crazy retarded adult into the E.R. it just makes it harder for real medical emergencies to be taken care of, besides most of the time people like that don't have insurance anyway, so we're being reimbursed pennies on the dollar by the government. Boy am I glad I didn't take an oath to take care of people regardless of their situation. Boy are docs getting hosed.