Working as a random, part-time, occasional locum is great for me – I’m really getting back into first opinion work and loving the challenges it brings.
Challenges you say? Working within legal and ethical boundaries, and individual practice guidelines of the veterinary world – easy! Much harder challenges exist.
Personally, the biggest challenge I find in any new practice is “where are your needles kept?”.
No can do
I know it’s really obvious if you work there, but needles are tiny so they could be anywhere – and with the logic of some vet prep spaces, they aren’t always close to the syringes or the injectable drugs.
On day one of a locum you usually get shown the crash box and maybe where the toilet is… then you’re straight into it.
I’m clearly going to be a little slower than your current staff as I’m just finding where everything is – and that’s okay – but I really can’t do any work until I know where the needles are. Really, I can’t; I can’t give medication, flush a drip, take blood, I’d be useless in an emergency once the needles in the crash box run out.
A place for everything…
In most prep rooms it’s pretty easy to see where most things live:
- The dangerous drugs cupboard is usually quite evident (the one with the key hanging by it is the best bet).
- Injectable drugs – of which there are a few – are usually kept together and easy to spot.
- Tablet medication is usually in a dispensary, so no problems there.
- Syringes vary in size, from the teeny to the huge, and are usually kept together, so aren’t hard to track down.
But where, oh where, could the needles be?
Getting right to the point
Needles. They’re tiny. And the difference between the most commonly-used, smallest and largest sizes is only a few millimetres, so even if you keep a box of each colour together, they could still be snuck into any 1 of the 10 drawers I can see. You might be lovely and label your drawers, but the print is so tiny I still need to get up close to read what’s in there.
They might be held in smaller amounts in clip lid boxes, old food-measuring cups cut down to fit in a drawer or a repurposed cutlery tray.
There may be a swanky medical trolley that can be wheeled to wherever you need them, bursting with every consumable a vet nurse might need and with a working surface that’s almost at an acceptable height to work at for those with bad backs (these trolleys are a thing of beauty and my heart flutters a little whenever I see one).
Or the needles might be kept in a huge storage cupboard outside the prep room and nurses carry their own secret supply in their pocket or nurse pouch.
A picture is worth a thousand words
All of these options are perfectly acceptable, but the layout of a veterinary practice is usually unique to the building it’s in – and, in London, that varies from Georgian town houses and railway arches to the occasional purpose-built space.
Just remember, for new staff – especially locums who are usually required to hit the ground running, we are only as effective as our ability to find what we need.
So don’t label drawers or cupboards with tiny labels, stick a big picture of a green needle on the drawer or cupboard where they reside. Everyone will thank you for it…
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