ADVANCING HEALTH-CARE PRACTICE

1.4     Helen's Story

I had to call the GP and I knew she had been up most of the night with a woman who didn't deliver until morning. I felt bad for having to interrupt her. Dr. Grant is so nice but she was ticked. She said she had never had to do this before, no-one had had to follow this process before! She said she'd call Dr. Dale and I went to tell Julie what was happening.

I got Julie and the room ready so all he had to do was come in and insert the epidural. I checked everything and because I was so nervous I got the charge nurse to check too. So everything was ready, and in he came. I tried to give him a bit of report and he totally ignored me and didn't even look at me or acknowledge me. He asked Julie a few questions and some of them she looked at me to help her answer because they were things most patients don't really know, and then he turned to the anesthetic cart and said "your nurse is not ready for me. When she has set up the room properly I will come and put in your epidural"; and out he walked?! Julie and Mike, her husband, both looked at me and I could have died. I apologized and I called the charge nurse in and she couldn't figure out what was wrong so she called him. She came in a took a 10cc vial of NaCl out of the top drawer and said that most of the anesthetists like to get their own solutions out so, not to worry, it was just Dr. Dale.