“Patient can’t Micturate, please doctor come and Micturate”
Nurse on Duty
Guess what???
This was a message written
by a Nurse
in distress to a doctor on call in ‘Call Book’ probably in late 1970s.
It was during those times when there are no lane phones, forget about mobiles
and pagers. Whenever there was problem with the patients or their conditions deteriorates,
the nurse used to scribble on the Call
Book and send the ward-boy to doctors quarters. When my seniors narrated me
the about story, I used to laugh my gut out but not anymore because I feel pity
imagining the circumstances of both the patient and nurse.
The situation was more
or less similar even when I joined as a full-fledged nurse in 1999. There were
power cuts without informing the hospital and in the ICU, we have to start
doing manual mask- bagging to the patients who required ventilators, and
sending call book was still in practice. Night shifts were very long
seven nights and only one nurse for thirty two patients in all units and
students used to be Bonus for us as a staff.
Facilities were
comparatively less those days, I hardly remember heaters in the duty rooms, so
night duty means, abdomen distension, nausea and we used to feed ourselves with
lots of antacids and dyclomine to ease our distension. Those circumstances
conditioned us to relax while standing and get a night’s sleep sitting on cold
small stool (that too if no admissions during night and lucky if there no attention
seeking patients and attendants, otherwise you will be torn apart between
doctors and them…..)
When I look back, the
situation in every front is better. We are much in advance in term of work environment,
technology and in terms of human resources. Night shift is decrease to almost
two nights only, doctors can be easily reached, and cases can be discussed with
much freedom, also we can call our more competent staff quickly according to
the need. As I look into the future I can see many rays of hopes for better
patient care and social support for the nurses as well…….Until such time we
need to keep working hard.
