Tuesday 18th September 2007 - After a night "On Call" the show must go on!

Well

As reported yesterday was a very busy day and it didnt stop, curious to find out how On Call worked i asked if I could experience it first hand and the Radiographer on call was all too glad to say yes.

On Call is lonely, its probably the only time I would feel vulnerable in the department. Why? well you are on your own, nobody to refer too, its just you and the patient out of normal hours. When im qualified im sure it would be a case of just getting on with the job regardless, from a student perspective it was quite intimidating.

Anyway back to On Call, after leaving at Five last night (Monday), the Radiographer got a call at 18:15 from M.I.U asking them if they could come back to department for a couple of important requests, he then called me and we met at the department.

The routine is slightly different to daytime hours as patients are all in bays in M.I.U, usually when M.I.U is full we shout the patient from the normal waiting area. A busy hospital in the evening becomes very quiet as the only people there are those visiting wards or patients for casualty.

Before meeting any patients the room has to be turned on, this includes the tube, control panel, DAP meter and all the computer systems which enable us to label the cassettes and the processor. This is very time consuming and energy intensive the processor unit alone takes 15 minutes to warm itself up to be able to work effectively.

When we enter M.I.U we collect all requests to get an idea of our workload and plan accordingly, usually mots of the work is extremity so its not too difficult to move the patiants through as a production line, there may be an occasional facial bone thrown in but mainly extremity. The evenings work was finished by 19:15 and we powered off and went back home only to be called out again at 20:15 and finished again at 21:30, apparently the Radiographer on call was called out once more after that and decided not to ring me again-shame but now I know what its like On call.

Today I feel tired! Having your evening interrupted is something which is not pleasent, being in a large city hospital you work evening shifts so you can plan when your on late and work your week around it. It feels as though you have not been away from department you come back in at 09:00 and start all over again and its hard to do.

On call is a whole different game, you are stuck near a phone until it calls if it doesnt its a quiet night, if it does you are at the mercy of the department until the work is done. Its an interruption which is not wanted especially if you are unfortuntae to be presented with an aggressive patient in the early hours.

The staff here work on an on call rota which include a seven day week on a one on four week basis.

Today has been a challenge and last night into today ahs been an experience which i will never forget, thankfully its only one night.
I was told by those who work on call that eventually you dont mind you become used to getting call outs and just get on with it.