On-Call

So I have started my On-calls!

At the trust I am working at we have separate Rota's. As my current rotation is within paediatrics I am on the paediatric on-call rota. I only see paediatric patients and it's great because I know all the patients I could potentially see! This makes my on calls much less stressful and gives me a really nice start to on call life.

I actually don't mind on-calls, a lot of people I have spoken to have always disliked on-calls because you don't get an evening and you could be knackered the next day. For me, as we get a room to stay in, it means a much shorter commute, and I have been lucky and not had many call outs so I'm not that tired!

For my first on-call I was actually quite excited, I was someone who could be useful in the hospital. I start at 20:00 and I got called at 20:06, Started with a BANG! we had a new retrieval so I didn't know the patient and I was treating on and off until 00:00. First off I had to assess, they were an intubated asthmatic, the tube then had to be moved lower down because it was too high, then I did some standard chest clearing using manual techniques and Saline. Then I had to help instil a medication called DNAse (I didn't put it in, but it has a low dispersal factor so we have to shake it up and move it about for it to work) you then leave it for half and hour and it breaks down all the DNA in the secretions to make them looser and easier to clear out. I then came back cleared it all and wrote my notes. 

It was a long process.

But if I hadn't done all that the pH of their blood could dramatically change and they could have become very unwell, and I helped stop that. 

I then went back to my room and slept on and off for 7 and half hours, I woke up feeling refreshed and ready to go for the next day (I was working a long day).

How to summarise on-call....you are there to help change a situation, as a physiotherapist you can make a huge difference or sometimes you just can't, but you tried. 

Liam