The Nurses

My doctor had his once in a year Pheasant Shooting Retreat outside Gorham on Friday and Saturday so arranged for another ortho dr to monitor my release.

The substitute doctor's nurse came down and in addition to the pain medication she was ordering I asked her if she would order my flunisolide nasal solution.  She said it was not a problem and glanced briefly at the bottle. I asked her if she had gotten that written down. She said, "Oh, I know that is the generic of Flonase". I commented that I did not know that.

When Linda brought the medicine back from Wal Mart I saw that it was Fluticasone Propionate 50 mcg. Gary said this sounded like a cortisone type spray. When I looked it up and then the Flunisolide I noticed the Fluticasone had a lot more serious warnings about it. I would not open it.

Now, I am not sure what the difference is, they are both cortisone type but definitely one is stronger than the other,

Wal Mart would not take the medicine back and it cost $48!!  I left a message on the nurses's phone and she called back on Monday, all cheery.  'Well, we try', she says.  'I will order the other one' and asked me to read it to her.  I reminded her that it had cost me $48.  She said she would try and get the pharmacy to give me a credit.

Later, I called Wal Mart and yes, they had the new order and it was $43--no credit.  So, yes, I am bummed out.  And I think it is extremely dangerous to have a nurse who is so cavalier about prescription mistakes!!!

Carrie was also not a stellar nurse.  I had told her to send the pain prescription to Wal Mart in Santee.  She couldn't find the phone number but noticed I had last year had prescriptions sent to the Poway store so assumed I had made a mistake and sent it there!!!!

Now I would like to tell the Drs about their charming but inefficient nurses, but how?

When I had the mortgage company I had two rules I expected the processors to follow.

1--Never Assume

How dangerous in the financial business (and nursing) when someone 'assumes' something that is not true.  So often people do not want to appear dumb so instead of getting the correct answer they 'assume' and this cannot only waste time but make costly mistakes.

2-Know What You Don't Know

Here again, instead of thinking you might appear dumb, say, "I don't know, but I will find out." or "Would you please let me write that down and read it back to you?  I want to make sure I have it correct."

I hammered this over and over and when a mistake was made this way, I said, "I don't care whose fault it was, what are you going to do about it?"  People are so quick to start with the, 'It was not my fault.' that they forget the bigger picture of 'solving the problem'.

I just watched the story of JFK and the PT boat accident and the reason he was a hero is that instead of 'blaming' or 'moaning' and 'complaining' he tried to solve the problem and saved everyone's life.  Too often in life our thoughts and efforts are spent on the wrong things.