Posts Tagged ‘volunteering’

“What Does The Spleen Do”?

Laughter may be the best medicine, but aren’t you s’posed to get through Med School first? Has sleep-deprivation pushed these hip-hopping Harvard Med Students over the edge or is this some kinda Ivy League Extra Credit to FIND THE FUNNY?

If only my ER would take a hint and produce a Medical Musical… At least I’d book a gig on the Spleen-Screen!

Hatee-Hatee-Hatee-Eeet
Hit-The-Books-Then-Hit-The-Beat!

Lately I’ve had the Baking Bug, trying out recipes before the HOLIDAYS (and if I have to be honest, because I’ve been craving something sweet).

The FIRST & the LAST Bites are always the BEST!

Evie’s Apple Nut Coffee Cake

I always allow myself two bites of yummy batter and two bites of whatever I’ve made when it’s fresh-out-of-the-oven. I’m sure you know this —  because it’s a well-known fact —  if you stand in the kitchen and eat bites, it’s not really fattening : )

My Dad and his sweet tooth, are always on my “goodie basket drop-off list”, and our little neighbor Owen loves my chocolate cake with M&Ms.  But even when I share with them, there’s still too much TEMPTATION left over, and that last thing I need to do before an Audition is stuff my face. Read the rest of this entry »

“head up ass”

On my Volunteer Shift, when I take Patients to beds, I glance at the chart to see what the complaint is so I don’t ask them to remove more clothes than they have to. That’s not exactly a Volunteer Rule (Charlayne trained us to say: “Remove all of your clothes, gown open to the back”).  But in my opinion, it’s unnecessarily annoying to Patients if you add to their discomfort.  If they’re in the ER for a hurt finger or toe, I’m certainly not gonna make them take off all of their clothes (“do unto others…”). But if they have a gyno, abdominal or rectal issue, it’s protocol that they remove everything and pee in a cup, so I can’t always grant myself rule-exception privileges.

Over time I’ve learned all of the color codes and what abbreviations mean like A fib (heart irregularity) or AMS (altered mental state) or CP (chest pains), but today Anthony Chan was in a particularly pissy mood (which happens frequently) and he wrote down DBI for this tat-covered greaser with missing teeth. I’d never seen that abbreviation before, so I had to ask Tyrell what it meant.

DBI might not be something they teach in medical school (or maybe it is, which would be really scary!) But either way doctors know DBI means: “dirt bag index.” Oh. Read the rest of this entry »

Hollywood vs.The Hospital

Okay, so if BuzzFeed writer Jack Moore can get staffed on the Fox show US & THEM simply by pitching modern day Seinfeld stories via his @seinfeldtoday, maybe I can star in my own life story about the characters who surround me…

Evie Stewart Meets @ERtoday

What If…

• Abby Lockhart’s mom goes off her meds and lands in the ER, but escapes with Evie to Barneys to binge shop before Abby cancels the credit card? Read the rest of this entry »

help!

OMG! I’m the one who needs to be resuscitated!

I get to my late afternoon shift and things are already outta control! Sunday Night Special! Patients wall-to-wall. No available beds. Missing wheelchairs, codes blasting on the PA, screamie-meemies, chest pains.  Anthony Chan’s being a bigger-than-normal pain in the ass —

VOLUNTEER, what part of “limping” do you not understand? Get my patient a wheelchair, stat!

I check the hallways, L & D, parking lots – nada, nowhere, now what?

I’ve gotta return with wheels pronto, so I head into unfamiliar territory, open a daunting door with a “Staff Only” sign and step into a brightly lit waiting area, where I discover:

Two Empty Wheelchairs!  Voila! Yay! Perfect!

Uhm… WAIT!  What’s that abandoned patient doing lying on that gurney? Read the rest of this entry »

Prescription for a Happy Face

Health isn’t the only thing that needs to get better in Hospitals. Customer dissatisfaction is more contagious than the Flu!  Think about it. Pre-internet when a customer was dissatisfied he’d maybe tell ten people, but in the current social media world complaints broadcast to thousands… maybe millions if your YouTube hits big.

Patient Satisfaction Overhaul (Finally!)

Did you see that L.A. Times article over the weekend about how federal payments to hospitals are being tied to customer satisfaction? That’s a major topic at the hospital where I volunteer. Everyone’s suddenly scrambling to figure out ways to make sure customer surveys are filled out positively — OR ELSE!

At my hospital they hire more people to act as Liasons between the Patient’s family and the Hospital.  I guess it helps everyone navigate the system, but we could do more. Much more. A great example of Hospital know-WOW comes from Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital.

Caped Cleaners

It’s a bird, It’s a plane…

I mean how cool would it be for anyone entering the hospital to look up and see Super Hero Window Washers? Read the rest of this entry »

Working in the hospital has the side benefit of Sensitivity Training. I’m not referring to overcoming prejudices, though that’s certainly a big part of helping people. I’m talking about assumptions as in, do not make them. When I make them, they backfire.  Learn from my mistakes. 

Generalizations lead to Oops Moments —

Part of my job as an ER Volunteer is to take Patients in labor up to the 3rd Floor — the Floor for Labor and Delivery and Post Partum. It’s where we get to look through the windows and see all of those cutey-patooty-newborns in their first hours of life. And it’s a Floor where Patients usually get to take home more than just a hospital bill.  For months whenever I’d meet people in the elevator going up to the 3rd Floor  I’d say something like — Read the rest of this entry »