All morning long the phone has been ringing and everyone I’ve spoken to has apologized for calling me. “I’m sorry for bothering you.” “I’m sure this is nothing, but … ” “This is a stupid question.” “I feel really silly bothering you with this …”
And all morning long my response has been some version of “There are no stupid questions,” “It’s no bother at all,” “I’m here to help you,” or “That’s why we’re here.”
It reminds me of an old song, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it is ...
One of the major challenges in working at Indiana Poison Center is persuading the public to call us right away, and not to wait for symptoms to develop. Despite all of our attempts at educating the public, a great majority of callers still worries about “bothering” us with trivial calls. So we go on attempting to educate, one at a time, that there are NO trivial calls and we welcome ALL calls. The best policy when it comes to poison control is better safe than sorry.
I don’t expect the average parent to be able to recognize or determine when a toxic exposure has occurred. I do expect them to realize when a non-food substance has been ingested, sprayed into the eyes, inhaled, or spilled on the skin, and to call for help right away. MY job is to help you determine how serious it is.
I don’t expect a parent to know which will be a problem: ear drops or eye drops (it's eye drops), Advil infant drops or Tylenol infant drops (Tylenol), Grandma’s beta-blocker or her ACE-I (BB), or pansies or petunias (neither). Figuring out what is toxic is a complicated process. It involves more than just the substance, but also includes the patient’s age, weight, PMH, current condition and other pertinent factors.
So, our conversation continues. Most of the time the exposure turns out to be a trivial event. Occasionally it is a serious situation and we send that child to the nearest ER. But even the calls that are not emergencies are important – they give me a chance to interact with the parent, to do some teaching regarding normal childhood development and poison proofing, to discuss when it is appropriate to call the PCC (always!) and to send them some educational literature about the PCC.
So the moral of the story is – ALWAYS CALL US. We’re here to help!
And thanks to Google, I found the song I was thinking of. It’s by Conway Twitty and the words are:
That’s my job
That’s what I do
Everything I do is because of you
To keep you safe, you see ……
That’s my job.
Gwenn
To be a registered nurse at Clarian, visit Registered Nursing Opportunities Indiana.
Search for available Nursing Jobs at Clarian Health by Nurse Specialty.
And all morning long my response has been some version of “There are no stupid questions,” “It’s no bother at all,” “I’m here to help you,” or “That’s why we’re here.”
It reminds me of an old song, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it is ...
One of the major challenges in working at Indiana Poison Center is persuading the public to call us right away, and not to wait for symptoms to develop. Despite all of our attempts at educating the public, a great majority of callers still worries about “bothering” us with trivial calls. So we go on attempting to educate, one at a time, that there are NO trivial calls and we welcome ALL calls. The best policy when it comes to poison control is better safe than sorry.I don’t expect the average parent to be able to recognize or determine when a toxic exposure has occurred. I do expect them to realize when a non-food substance has been ingested, sprayed into the eyes, inhaled, or spilled on the skin, and to call for help right away. MY job is to help you determine how serious it is.
I don’t expect a parent to know which will be a problem: ear drops or eye drops (it's eye drops), Advil infant drops or Tylenol infant drops (Tylenol), Grandma’s beta-blocker or her ACE-I (BB), or pansies or petunias (neither). Figuring out what is toxic is a complicated process. It involves more than just the substance, but also includes the patient’s age, weight, PMH, current condition and other pertinent factors.
So, our conversation continues. Most of the time the exposure turns out to be a trivial event. Occasionally it is a serious situation and we send that child to the nearest ER. But even the calls that are not emergencies are important – they give me a chance to interact with the parent, to do some teaching regarding normal childhood development and poison proofing, to discuss when it is appropriate to call the PCC (always!) and to send them some educational literature about the PCC.
So the moral of the story is – ALWAYS CALL US. We’re here to help!
And thanks to Google, I found the song I was thinking of. It’s by Conway Twitty and the words are:
That’s my job
That’s what I do
Everything I do is because of you
To keep you safe, you see ……
That’s my job.
Gwenn
To be a registered nurse at Clarian, visit Registered Nursing Opportunities Indiana.
Search for available Nursing Jobs at Clarian Health by Nurse Specialty.
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