It's been almost a year (another 2 days to be exact) since I started work in a hospital clinical lab as a medical lab assistant. How time flies.
I realized that my life seems to revolve around hospitals.
1. I was born in a hospital (Duh...)
2. I used to follow my mum to the hospital for her dialysis sessions quite often before she got her kidney transplant,
3. I did a few months' worth of part-time work in that hospital during my 6-month school break after my 'O' Levels,
4. I was constantly in and out of hospitals due to my epilepsy,
5. I worked at an animal hospital previously,
6. I was a purchaser for a private human hospital, and...
7. I still am working in a hospital.
As such, I shall now entertain you with stories of some of my more jaw-dropping, mind numbing, hair tearing, eye watering, fist clenching, daggers coming out of the eyes-ing exchanges with people from my current workplace.
Today's spine chilling story: The Pneumatic Tube System Mystery.
We use a pneumatic tube system to send samples quickly from the wards and clinics to the lab. For those who's not in the know, a pneumatic tube system works by high pressured air to quickly "suck & shoot" (Hmmm...) a hollow canister from one location to another. You can put lotsa stuff in to the canister but where I work, we usually get blood samples, urine samples and stool (Yes! We literally get SHIT at work!) samples.
One of the amusing things about the system is that the one we have is old and prone to breakdown and for some reason, the main control system is located in the lab, so I guess that makes us in-charge of it.
I'm sure some of you can guess from the above sentence that we do get a lot of calls from the various wards and clinics to complain whenever the system decides to take a unscheduled break, especially during the sample rush hours (our lunch time and knock-off time usually). Sometimes, in order to help out the other departments a bit, we call them up to kindly inform them that the system is not working and that they should send urgent specimens up via the human porters.
There have been a few times when our kindness have been met with impatience and scorn, including one nurse who started taking out her frustrations on me.
Nurse: Why is your system always down wan?!!?
Me: I'm afraid it's an old system and it is running 24 hours.
Nurse: But we only send you a few samples a day.
Me: Er... Huh?
Nurse: Aiyah. OKlahOKlah!
... Hangs up.
Me: Huh?
So much for kindness...
Another thing people don't get about pneumatic tubes is that they expect it to be instantaneous. Sure it is fast. That I agree but what they don't grasp is the concept concept of patience. Now picture this... a plastic canister being shot from one end of a building to another part of it at high speed. Obviously you can only send one at a time right? More than one canister being shot at the same time = 2 canisters exploding in my face at the receiving end and I end up being covered in blood, urine and shit.
This is the conversation between myself and another nurse who didn't understand that concept.
Me: Good morning Clinical Lab.
Nurse: This is Ward 3. Your pneumatic tube is not working.
(I look over at the receiving area and see a canister arrive.)
Me: Er... It seems to be working on my end. What's wrong with it?
Nurse: My sample cannot be sent. You have to go and purge the system.
(I look over to see yet another canister pop out.)
Me: I don't understand... what is the error message on your screen?
Nurse: I have no screen. I am at the pneumatic tube.
Me: *Rolling eyes* If you look at the terminal where you key in the location number, what does the screen say?
Nurse: I donno... the tube is just not moving.
Me: Is there any alarm or buzzer?
Nurse: No. The thing just say "Selection ok. Sending".
Me: *Slaps my forhead* That's good. It should be working then. How long has the canister been loaded?
Nurse: I just put it in.
Me: *Throttles the space in front of me* Oh... it could be waiting for its turn to dispatch. The canisters can only be sent one at a time and we are receiving a lot of samples at the moment.
Nurse: You sure it's not spoiled ah?
Me: Since the screen says that it is ok, why don't you wait a few minutes. If it still doesn't work after 5 minutes or if there's any alarm, let us know.
Nurse: Okbye. *click*
A canister from ward 3 arrives a minute later.
ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
On a more positive note, I do get a good laugh out of the weird names the nurses call the pneumatic tube canisters.
1. Can you send us some Magnetic tubes?
2. We need some phu-matic tubes.
3. Can you send some automatic tubes?
4. Can you give us some more bottles?
5. We are out of poo-matic tubes.
6. Can send some p-uhvfiu-matic tubes?
As nurses, shouldn't they be familiar with the "pneu" of pneumatic? I mean... I'm sure they've learnt about pneumonia! I don't think they'll go:
1. This patient has Phu-monia.
2. He is suffering from Poo-monia.
3. We are treating him for p-uhvfiu-monia.
4. The doctor says you have ph... pf... pu... fft... SARS.
Oh man...
I realized that my life seems to revolve around hospitals.
1. I was born in a hospital (Duh...)
2. I used to follow my mum to the hospital for her dialysis sessions quite often before she got her kidney transplant,
3. I did a few months' worth of part-time work in that hospital during my 6-month school break after my 'O' Levels,
4. I was constantly in and out of hospitals due to my epilepsy,
5. I worked at an animal hospital previously,
6. I was a purchaser for a private human hospital, and...
7. I still am working in a hospital.
As such, I shall now entertain you with stories of some of my more jaw-dropping, mind numbing, hair tearing, eye watering, fist clenching, daggers coming out of the eyes-ing exchanges with people from my current workplace.
Today's spine chilling story: The Pneumatic Tube System Mystery.
We use a pneumatic tube system to send samples quickly from the wards and clinics to the lab. For those who's not in the know, a pneumatic tube system works by high pressured air to quickly "suck & shoot" (Hmmm...) a hollow canister from one location to another. You can put lotsa stuff in to the canister but where I work, we usually get blood samples, urine samples and stool (Yes! We literally get SHIT at work!) samples.
One of the amusing things about the system is that the one we have is old and prone to breakdown and for some reason, the main control system is located in the lab, so I guess that makes us in-charge of it.
I'm sure some of you can guess from the above sentence that we do get a lot of calls from the various wards and clinics to complain whenever the system decides to take a unscheduled break, especially during the sample rush hours (our lunch time and knock-off time usually). Sometimes, in order to help out the other departments a bit, we call them up to kindly inform them that the system is not working and that they should send urgent specimens up via the human porters.
There have been a few times when our kindness have been met with impatience and scorn, including one nurse who started taking out her frustrations on me.
Nurse: Why is your system always down wan?!!?
Me: I'm afraid it's an old system and it is running 24 hours.
Nurse: But we only send you a few samples a day.
Me: Er... Huh?
Nurse: Aiyah. OKlahOKlah!
... Hangs up.
Me: Huh?
So much for kindness...
Another thing people don't get about pneumatic tubes is that they expect it to be instantaneous. Sure it is fast. That I agree but what they don't grasp is the concept concept of patience. Now picture this... a plastic canister being shot from one end of a building to another part of it at high speed. Obviously you can only send one at a time right? More than one canister being shot at the same time = 2 canisters exploding in my face at the receiving end and I end up being covered in blood, urine and shit.
This is the conversation between myself and another nurse who didn't understand that concept.
Me: Good morning Clinical Lab.
Nurse: This is Ward 3. Your pneumatic tube is not working.
(I look over at the receiving area and see a canister arrive.)
Me: Er... It seems to be working on my end. What's wrong with it?
Nurse: My sample cannot be sent. You have to go and purge the system.
(I look over to see yet another canister pop out.)
Me: I don't understand... what is the error message on your screen?
Nurse: I have no screen. I am at the pneumatic tube.
Me: *Rolling eyes* If you look at the terminal where you key in the location number, what does the screen say?
Nurse: I donno... the tube is just not moving.
Me: Is there any alarm or buzzer?
Nurse: No. The thing just say "Selection ok. Sending".
Me: *Slaps my forhead* That's good. It should be working then. How long has the canister been loaded?
Nurse: I just put it in.
Me: *Throttles the space in front of me* Oh... it could be waiting for its turn to dispatch. The canisters can only be sent one at a time and we are receiving a lot of samples at the moment.
Nurse: You sure it's not spoiled ah?
Me: Since the screen says that it is ok, why don't you wait a few minutes. If it still doesn't work after 5 minutes or if there's any alarm, let us know.
Nurse: Okbye. *click*
A canister from ward 3 arrives a minute later.
ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
On a more positive note, I do get a good laugh out of the weird names the nurses call the pneumatic tube canisters.
1. Can you send us some Magnetic tubes?
2. We need some phu-matic tubes.
3. Can you send some automatic tubes?
4. Can you give us some more bottles?
5. We are out of poo-matic tubes.
6. Can send some p-uhvfiu-matic tubes?
As nurses, shouldn't they be familiar with the "pneu" of pneumatic? I mean... I'm sure they've learnt about pneumonia! I don't think they'll go:
1. This patient has Phu-monia.
2. He is suffering from Poo-monia.
3. We are treating him for p-uhvfiu-monia.
4. The doctor says you have ph... pf... pu... fft... SARS.
Oh man...
