Don't Call Me Call the Zoo

Every nurse no matter how jaded or disgruntled she or he becomes will admit that at one time or another this career has been one of the most rewarding things anyone could ever do. Of course some days you spend what seems to be hours wading through heeps of shit litterally but others like the one in the not to distant past that really brings a joy to your heart and at the end of the day there is a personal satisfaction of a job well done. As many nurses do this day in age i manage two jobs both equally challanging. My first love is on unit 53 vascular surgery. I don't know there is just something about the sound of a bone saw first thing in the morning that can really get you moving. My second job I work in a private doctors office tending to patients and doctors bidding and of course feilding calls from who ever when ever. I was working at the doctors office this one day when a page overhead was one of many "Tracy line 101" I picked up the phone with my usual greating Tracy speaking how can i help you when a paniced voice on the other end of the line abruptly interupted me "THIS CALL IS COSTING ME 4.99$ A MINUTE BUT I DON'T CARE CAUSE I WAS JUST BIT BY A MONKEY!" Now you would think that having a couple of year experience dealing with upset and panicked people over the phone would have assisted me in dealing with this situation but nothing really ever prepared me for what to do. So as calmly as i could manage i asked the patient to repeat the statement again and sure enough it turns out this women was calling me long distance while on holidays because she had just been bit by a monkey. As i rummaged through my mental crisis intervention hand book i realized that there is a sever lack of information on how to deal with foreign mammal attacks. I said what any rational thinking person would say "Don't call me call the zoo" I then had to explain to this women that me being from a non monkey habitat that contacting someone familiar with monkeys may yield her some better answers and perhaps her best approach to this situation is to be treated by a doctor in the country in which the attack happened. That night when i laid my head down to sleep I knew that i had made a real difference and that being a nurse would gain me many more rewarding experiences like this to come.