Ah, this all sounds very nice and can be quite enjoyable on a hot summer day or evening in Phoenix when we are living in temperatures in the 100's. And everyone knows that I enjoy a nice glass of wine and appreciate it for what it is; however, when I am at work alcohol, wine, drugs, etc are NOT tolerated, by my hospital or by me!
This all leads me into the ridiculous story I have to share about this inexpensive wine. I had a patient (who I had been warned earlier that the friends were a little "suspicious"). She was on the floor but had developed a high fever, increased HR, and decreased blood pressure and they were worried she was going septic. They wanted to watch her overnight in the ICU...give her some good 1:1 care...watch her vitals, give her fluids, antibiotics, etc. No problem. Well, around 1 am her friends start arriving (would you visit your sick friend at 1am in the morning if they were at home??) and I noticed this one kid acting really boisterous and arrogant. I go to get her antibiotic drip and when I come back I see the curtain is completely closed....uhhh....thats a no-go in here. Unless there is a reason that has been discussed with the nurse, curtains aren't closed like that in the ICU. So as I walk in, the kid tries to keep me from coming in (that wasn't happening!) and as I walk around the side of the bed to the IV pole...what do I see open on the side table?
I went from 0 to 10 immediately on the anger scale. There are so many reasons why, the first being the idea you are trying to develop trust with your patient and vice versa...well, that was a big slap in the face and out of the question now. Second, I am giving this patient IV narcotics every hour for her pain and now I have the suspicion she could be consuming alcohol? And the audacity of these people to not respect the environment they are in. Not only are you in a hospital, you are in an Intensive Care Unit! I told them it was completely inappropriate, I couldn't believe they had the nerve to bring this in and that now I am under suspicion my patient may have been drinking. It was absolutely not tolerated, they needed to leave and I escorted them out.
Guess that is just one more night in the Trauma ICU....sure this won't be my first go-around with something like this!
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