racing the rat

It's been a super weird week at work. The honeymoon period is most definitely over.

I've been doing "float" this week. Basically, I show up at 1pm and man the pre-op clinic for a few hours and then take ER call until 8pm. Historically, calls for our group have been a complete beat-down. So just prior to my start date they started the concept of a float person to ease the on-call responsibilities. The floater takes all calls from the ER and the on-call person does cross-cover and consults. This is my first time as the float but I've been on-call many a time and the division of responsibilities seems to work pretty well.

Some back ground: I have only asked my float person for assistance one time when I was on-call. And I only did so because my secretary texted me and told me that the float wasn't doing anything and that I should ask for help. It WAS a busy afternoon. I got 14 consults in 5 hours on-call. My float saw one of them. But I could have seen that patient and still gotten done at a reasonable hour. Without leaving any leftovers for the night person. I've NEVER left anybody for the oncoming doc. Never. And my float person has never once asked me if I've needed help while on-call. Background complete.

So, Monday started out benignly. I was busy pretty much from the start. Saw, and admitted, 6 patients in succession from the ER and left the hospital around 9pm. Not leaving anybody for my night person to see. The on-call person left them one. Tuesday: I did nothing. Nada. Got out of clinic a little later than normal. The on-call person and I spent the evening shooting-the-shit in the office. He did see a consult and one direct admission over the course of several hours but didn't need me to help him because they came one at a time. No one left for our night guy. Wednesday. Yeah. This is where most of the weirdness came in. Got a text from the on-call person about 430 asking if I could give her a hand. I had just gotten done with clinic and already had 2 in the ER waiting for me. Told her I'd give her a hand when I got caught up. I did. She asked me to see a consult. I did. And then asked if there was someone else she wanted me to see. There was. I saw that person as well. Asked her again if she needed anything. She said no. I, once again, left nothing for the night person and the on-call person left one. Yesterday, I saw 2 peops in the ER early in the afternoon and then another for my on-call person. Then tackled 2 consults for him as well. At 745 I got another hit from the ED and saw it (as opposed to leaving it for the oncoming night person), leaving the hospital at around 845.

Where's the drama? Well the Wednesday call person let me know that she didn't appreciate my attitude to her on the phone. Apparently I was being rude and she had never had that kind of interaction before with a "colleague." She cried in the office while talking to me about this. That's right, folks. Cried. To be fair, I probably WAS short with her on the phone. I was just trying to get the work done, just trying to help her as quickly as possible so I would be ready if something new came from the ER. And, FYI? This was the same person who was float the day I had the record-breaking consult call. The same one who never offered to help me. The same person who, when I asked her, only saw one patient for me and then didn't talk to me again for the rest of the night. So, yeah. Fun.

There's more. Little comments from the Thursday call person to me about "sharing" the load when on float. That kind of thing. Really? Wasn't that what I was doing? And let me remind you once again: When I've been on call I have NEVER been offered help by the float person. This week on float, I've ALWAYS offered assistance to the call person. Am I the only person who finds this twilight-zone weird?

Yep. The honeymoon is over. And I don't even have a tan to show for it.