ETA, SPD, ODOT

     First off, I think it’s kind of rude for people to use abbreviations. I mean, they know what it means, but does anybody else? I think they say to themselves, “Hmmm, I’ll sound cool if I use this abbreviation, and if anyone else doesn’t know it, I’ll get a good laugh when they try to guess what it means.” I think I’ve given several people a good laugh.

     One night, the unit secretary from ER called up and said they were calling Life Flight. I couldn’t exactly understand what she had said until she made helicopter noises. Anyway, I was supposed to call the police department because they come out and make sure the landing pad is cleared of pedestrians. So, I dutifully called the police and told them that Life Flight was on their way.

    “What’s their ETA?” the guy on the other end asked.

     “Their what?”

     “Their ETA.”

     I decided to assume that meant he wanted to know what he was supposed to do. I figured he should already know that, but I would try to help him out anyway.

     “I think you guys come and keep the landing cleared off,” I said.

    “Estimated Time of Arrival,” he clarified, probably thinking that I was a complete nut.

     “Uhh, right. I don’t know that, let me transfer you back to ER.” I was probably blushing over the phone because I do that often.

 

     Just yesterday, a guy called and wanted Sterile Processing. Okay, what in the world is that, and why would anyone want to talk to a department called that? Whatever. The point is, he wanted to talk to Sterile Processing and I had no idea what to do. Besides that, the phone had already rung back because another girl had already tried an extension for him and it didn’t work. Ahhh!

     “Is there another name for that department because we don’t have one called by that name,” I said, not realizing that we really did.

     “SPD,” he said giving me the abbreviations. Here we go again…

     “STD?” I asked, repeating what I heard. The girls next to me started to giggle.

     “No, SPD,” he said, and I quickly hit “transfer” to get rid of his annoying voice and to keep from embarrassing myself further.

     I was blushing again, which is no surprise, and I finally got rid of him by paging Sterile Processing overhead.

     The other girls in the office said they were glad for a laugh, so at least I made somebody’s day a little brighter although I embarrassed myself AGAIN.

 

     In conclusion, I would just like to see if anybody out there knows what ODOT stands for without Googling it. I recently learned that one too…