I walked into the Emergency Department one hot morning a couple of weeks ago and found every last stretcher — twenty-five beds, including the two we try to reserve for trauma or codes — was filled with admitted patients; furthermore, five additional patients were waiting for consultants and likely admission. We were operating at 120% […]
Author: torontoemerg
Those Emergency Blues: Flattery Will Get You Everywhere
It’s been a tough couple of weeks for Team TorontoEmerg. First, I’ve been working like a rented mule, and secondly, a colleague whom I trusted and respected sandbagged me with a nasty and embarrassing (and devastating) personal attack, which frankly put me in a bit of a tailspin. How bad was it? Think about being […]
Those Emergency Blues: Hotocalypse
Hot enough for ya? For you non-metric types, that 38C is an even 100F. I think I speak for most of my fellow Canadians when I say, “WTF?” I suppose it’s redundant and unnecessary to add that staying out of the sun, finding a cool, air-conditioned place to hole up in (if possible) and drinking […]
Those Emergency Blues: Get Me the Frickin’ Goat!
If only there was a magic goat. Part of an advertising campaign from the Nova Scotia Ministry of Health Promotion and Protection aimed at reducing harm from high risk behaviours. According to the No Magic Goat website: 911 is your friend. The goat, not so much. (She bites, for one). She’s cute and furry, but […]
Those Emergency Blues: Triage
The world in four patients, plus interruptions. Who’s next? Come in. Do you have your Health Card? Take off your hoodie and sit down. What brings you in today? Where exactly is the pain? On a scale of one to ten, if ten is the worst possible pain, what number would you give the pain? […]
Those Emergency Blues: Three Strikes and You’re Out, and By Out, I Mean Dead
This story was plastered above the fold in yesterday’s print edition of the Toronto Star: Gleb Alfyorov thought he was going to a hospital for help. So did the judge who ordered a 30-day psychiatric evaluation of the Pickering teen. “I want you to be with a team of specialists — nurses and doctors who […]
Those Emergency Blues: Yep, Still Have A Pulse
My unintentional hiatus will have to continue for a few couple more days, anyway, so apologies to my regular readers and friends. My absence is for reasons I’d love to tell you about, but can’t (damn you, self-imposed anonymity!). Suffice to say work — I’ve been seconded to some administrative-like work, remember — plus some […]
Those Emergency Blues: Happy Canada Day
And all that. No Cobourg frolic this year, unfortunately, just work, work, work The dearth of posts the past week is not for lack of trying — have several rattling around in the draft file, but circumstances — work and family commitments, and also some (usual) nursing nastiness, which i will probably write about in a […]
Those Emergency Blues: Flash Mob Bares Breasts, Somewhere Prudes are Moaning
For a good cause, of course: A bold group of mothers gave a new meaning to the term ‘flashmob’ when they bared their breasts at a major shopping centre today to raise awareness of breastfeeding. More than a hundred mothers of all ages – some accompanied by their partners – descended on the Trafford Centre […]
Those Emergency Blues: Favourite Poems XL
For the fortieth poem in the series, something a little different. Okay, not seasonal, but what the hell. (The Simpsons’ classic version can be found here.)
Filed under: Favourite Poems, Random Thoughts Tagged: Poe, poems, poetry
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: Friday Night Flicks: The Mountain
I’ve seen this short by TSO Photography a few times now, and it hasn’t grown old yet.
Filed under: Friday Night Flicks Tagged: short films
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: The Most Useless Form on the Planet
Imagine this: you’ve had the shift from hell, no beds, every other patient is moments away from seeing Jesus/Allah/Buddha and to top it off, the department is down three nurses, another nurse is transporting the multisystem trauma downtown, and you feel really think working conditions were unsafe for both you and more importantly, your patients. […]
Those Emergency Blues: I’ve Been Selected for a Not-So-Clever Marketing Scheme
This blog has been named as one of the ”20 Best Blog for Nurses” by that august institution, Jacksonville University School of Nursing. My jaded, cynical, shrivelled heart tells me it’s a trojan horse marketing scheme, since the button they emailed me links to information on their MScN program, and there doesn’t seem to a “20 […]
Those Emergency Blues: New Contract Beats Up on Ontario Nurses
On 3 June 2011, an arbitration panel handed down the new contract for the majority of Ontario hospital nurses. The panel was set up when negotiations between the Ontario Hospital Association and the union, the Ontario Nurses’ Association broke down. This is a pretty routine procedure when the union contract comes up for renewal, because […]
Those Emergency Blues: When All Else Fails, Use a Cliché
Along with Ye Olde Mill By The Stream™ and Child Getting First Haircut™, Insect on Flower is one of the most beloved clichés in photography. But as Jethro, my photographical partner-in-crime says, who the hell cares? Filed under: I Really Have a Life Outside of Nursing, Some Photos, Traipsing Around the Countryside Tagged: photo, photography
Those Emergency Blues: How to Clear Out a Waiting Room
A couple of weeks ago we had a spectacularly bad day, traumas, codes, STEMIs, septic shock, status asthmaticus, what have you, plus (of course) a department filled with the haunted faces of the damned admitted patients and volumes of epic proportions. Faced with an angry and hostile waiting room overflowing with the walking wounded, the […]
Those Emergency Blues: Time for the Talk
A tried and true (if tedious) bait and switch routine to draw attention to a serious issue. Synchronicity is a weird and wonderful thing. Here I was talking about the my own promiscuous use of the F-bomb this week, and now a non-profit uses it as part of an advertising campaign in order to be relevant […]
Those Emergency Blues: Favourite Poems XXXIX
The story of how Coleridge came to write this famous poem is probably too well known to bear repeating (but nonetheless is found here, for example.) I have sometimes wondered if one could write a poem considered (maybe) one of the ten or twenty greatest in the English language intoxicated with opium; I know there […]
Those Emergency Blues: Bad Nurse! Bad!
I guess my venting, raging post the other day offended and/or ticked some people off, or at least the use of the strong language did. No sooner had I posted my screed than no fewer then five Twitter followers immediately dumped me, and I lost a couple of email subscribers to boot. (I’m losing sleep.) […]
Those Emergency Blues: Why I Garden
So I was away from this blog for a few days. Not intentionally, I hasten to add: but sometimes, it must be admitted, unintentional absences are the best. I was in fact dealing with miscellaneous garbage, like what I wrote about yesterday. The flotsam and jetsam of life. I would have rather spent time in […]