False Alarm.

There is no doubt that modern technology amazes me everyday. I am so grateful to be working in a hospital that takes advantage of crucial medical advances and uses them as they were intended. With the push of a single blue switch, I can notify the medical response team/Code Blue team, the house supervisor, and the operator of a serious event...a Code Blue. The activation of this simple creation pages every person who needs to be present in a life saving emergency. Because it sends an immediate message to the operator, he/she then pages the code overhead, for others to come as support and assistance. It is simply amazing!

I have worked in other facilites that have the switch, but do not have it set up to do any of the aforementioned. Crazy, right? It makes me wonder what the point of having the technology is...seeing that it is not implemented correctly.

You can imagine what happens when the switch gets pushed...even if the housekeepers accidently activate it. This was what happened to me today.

I had discharged a patient and nearly an hour later (as I am in the hall making rounds) I see a blue flashing light. Panic! I quickly remember there is no one in the room, but try to relay the message for someone to quickly deactivate the switch. Strangely, they are all dumbfounded, even as they stare at the indicator as it steadily blinks. No one else moves. I run down the hall to see what the heck is going on. I know I will be getting a patient soon and have not received report yet, but wonder if my new patient is in the room "coding". I fling the door open to find two housekeepers working as hard as they can. One of them is in my way and so is her cart. I try to tell her to flip the switch, but she looks at me like I'm crazy. So I push her cart out of the way and squeeze past her to do it myself. She is still looking at me like I have 3 heads.

Everyone that witnessed my mad dash is confused. I was asked many times why it was such a big deal. And then...."Attention Please! Attention Please! Code Blue [my unit] Code Blue [my unit]" And then they got it. These people were going to be pissed. I had to explain to each and every person who came to help code the imaginary patient, that it was an accident and I tried to prevent the call. Then..."Attention Please! Attention Please! Cancel Code Blue, Cancel Code Blue". Now my co-workers truly understood why I was in such a rush.

Is it strange that I was apparently the only one to know how the system works? I find that is a common occurrence. I take pride in knowing how things work and the proper procedure and protocols for each and every thing that I can. Strange, right? Well as it turns out, I'm one of the rookies who graduated only 5 months ago and have seasoned nurses asking ME how to do things. That's the strange thing.

My best advice comes from experience. Get as much of it as you can. Know all that you can about the tools and devices you operate. It WILL make your life so much easier and it will benefit your patients.

-Gray