Staff Encounters of the Third Kind

Sunday was by far the most adventurous day of staffing I have experienced thus far. I would describe myself as very orderly - very neat. Actually, I'm just this side of OCD. My colleague this weekend...I'm surprised he could even find his keyboard under the multitude of paperwork he had stacked up. When I came on shift at 8:00am, he hadn't even given the midnight pharmacist his break. The tech was up to her eyeballs with IVs in the IV room. And my colleague...he was updating compounding binders in the IV room. I agree this is a task that needs to be done....but does it really need to be done when there are 110 IVs to be compounded??? The midnight pharmacist agreed to hold down the input station until I got our tech caught up in the IV room. 45 minutes later, my colleague was still updating binders. The tech was left with 20 or so IVs to compound, so I went out and let the midnight pharmacist go to lunch. The morning progressed pretty much like this - I inputted the inpatient orders, I processed the discharges, I filled the Pyxis in the ICU, I filled the narcotics for the ER...basically I ran my ass off. Meanwhile, my colleague picked his nose and checked his stocks. We had a guy in the ICU using a tubex of fentanyl every hour, so we suggested changing him to a fentanyl drip. Every fentanyl drip I have ever made or seen hanging in the ICU is 500mcg fentanyl in 500mL NS. My illustrious colleague wanted to make it 2500mcg fentanyl in 250mL NS. I highly advised him against this. The nurses up there are accustomed to 1:1 dilutions. If they need 10mcg of fentanyl, they give 10mL of the drip. This was setting him up for a major drug error. I also informed him that each tubex was 100mcg/2mL. I highly doubted the 250mL piggy of NS could hold 50mL more of fluid. He looked at me like I was from outer space. I informed him that I was going to have NOTHING to do with the drip. I didn't want my name on it at all. It took him 1.5 hours to calculate the drip out and compound it. (Yes I said 1.5 hours - meanwhile the freaking ICU was pushing 75mcg of fentanyl every hour and bolusing him with 150mcg of fentanyl!!!) Well - after he got the fentanyl out of our narcotic vault, he decided to set the alarm...and not lock the door. I got an ER call for codeine cough syrup. I went up to outpatient, scanned my badge, and entered the pharmacy. By the time I made it to the vault, there was a piercing beeping sound. This was followed 10 seconds later by a loud beating on the pickup window. I pulled up the blinds to find a federal police officer. By the look on his face, he was really concerned about my safety. He wouldn't believe me that I was ok. I finally let him in the pharmacy. After walking around and ensuring there weren't any veterans hiding in the aisles, he bid me a good day. I called my colleague and thanked him for allowing me the experience to meet our lovely police force. He thought it was funny. I think he's an idiot! HA! When the evening pharmacist came on shift - he asked what my colleague had done all day because by this time, his stack of paper covered his keyboard and his chair. I just rolled my eyes. The evening shift told me to go home - I had earned my keep for one day. HA! Oh yea, did I mention that my colleague has been a pharmacist at the hospital for over 20 years??? Yea...ridiculous!