Double Whammy!

“Cheer up things could be worse. So I cheered up and sure enough things got worse!”
-Joseph Rudyard Kipling



From where I sit July is the perhaps one of the most dangerous months of the year to come to hospital. Regular readers will know why I say that because they are familiar with a previous post “Shiny Stethoscope Month”. But for those of you who have just joined us or are too lazy to read the offered link I refer to this particular month in such as fashion because this is the time of year when Clinical Clerks become Residents.

Now what this means to the uninitiated is that prior to July 1 the now first year residents who are now making so many big decisions about your stay in hospital not to mention your life where just a very short time ago clinical clerks who were not allowed to tie their shoes by themselves let alone make a decision. Suddenly in the best example of modern day survival of the fittest they have been tossed head first from the nest to become grownup doctors who have to start thinking for themselves. Now to be fair here I’m sure the transition is indeed a rough one for them and I do have some small sympathy for their plight.

That said however what this all means to both patients and nurses is that come the dawn of the morning of July 1 (Happy Canada Day) we all have to deal with a group of new “doctors” who for the most part lack confidence not to mention in a number of cases competence. Anyone still wondering why I suggest you stay the hell out of the hospital during the month of July if possible? From where I sit it's simple case of increasing your chances of survival. Let the latest round of kinks, bugs and numerous delays related to indecision get worked out of the system on someone else.

Here in Calgary though things go from bad to worse because unlike other places we have the privilege of a 2 for 1 deal in regards to the first weeks of July. You see in addition to the issues raised by new residents we also get to experience the fallout of the “World Famous Calgary Stampede”.

Now for those of you who are lucky enough not to know what that is; it’s a 10 day Rodeo that celebrates a number of things. Different people will tell you different things about stampede but from this humble Angy Nurse’s point of view it’s a 10 day drunken orgy where what would be normally classed as even more stupid behavior then usual is the norm. During stampede people that should be considered as fodder for the Darwin Awards are not only routinely encountered, but sadly tolerated with a shrug and the often muttered phrase of “hey it’s stampede”.

So with these two factors in mind let’s do a little math here:

New Residents + Huge numbers of Dumbass Drunks with trauma=Disaster!


Needless to say neither July nor stampede is my favorite time of year!

Even if I could get past the number of posers trying to pass themselves off as cowboys and cowgirls who quite frankly wouldn't be able to tell you what comes out of the south end of a north bound cow. I'd still have to deal with the new residents that are having a hard time dealing with normal patients lets alone the herds of even more drunk and stupid people than usual that are gracing us with their presence.

July in Calgary!

YaFU@KINGHooo