omg, this video just makes me so happy. :-p
Monday, November 22, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Day shift???
I've been working a loootttttt of nights recently (i think in the last 5 weeks I've had 4 day shifts) and the minimal day shifts I've worked have been weekends or I've been precepting a new grad (aka the shifts have been cake). Today was the first day I was an actual nurse during a weekday day shift in I dont even know how long. I figured the day would be busy, but I was not expecting a day that was borderline insane. I am going to steal D's idea of letter-writing to elaborate on my day:
Dear Intern who decided it was necessary to call me and interrupt my 3pm lunch break to fax an order to the pharmacy,
Are you kidding me?? Faxing orders is the Secretary's job. It's what we pay her to do. Do NOT interrupt my first and only attempt of the day to sit down just so I can do her job. Did I mention I've been here since 6:45am and it's now 3pm and I am just NOW on my lunch break??
Dear Charge Nurse,
I already have 4 patients, I've been running around like crazy all day long, and I was the last one to take a lunch break (if you can call 7 minutes during which I inhaled food, a "break"). Did you really think I was the best choice to take on a 5th patient?? Especially when the patient is a POD2 small bowel transplant with everything under the sun going on with her. I mean, I am all about being a team player, but REALLY??
Dear Nurse in the Endoscopy unit,
I specifically told you my patient had blood products running at that you needed to be with her during transport. Not only did you not transport my patient, but you did not administer the blood products that she needed. You can expect an incident report from me.
Dear Ms. T,
You are my star patient and the only thing that got me through the day. PS - thanks for the baked treats!
Dear ICU nurses,
You are the bane of our existence. Just because you work in the ICU, you think you can ignore protocol. News Flash: Protocol is there for the safety of the patients. When you disregard it, you not only make our lives difficult, but you put the patient in danger. Next time you have a patient on a continuous PCA, I suggest you copy the flowsheet correctly. Next time you have a Heparin drip, I suggest you have the orders written down somewhere so that when I receive your patient I know what rate she should run at. Afterall, we wouldnt want her BLEEDING OUT b/c you couldnt give an appropriate hand-off of care. Seriously, I cant imagine what kind of a clusterfuck you people work in.
Dear bladder,
I am sorry I did not have time to empty you during my 14-hour work day. Please dont get infected.
Dear Intern who decided it was necessary to call me and interrupt my 3pm lunch break to fax an order to the pharmacy,
Are you kidding me?? Faxing orders is the Secretary's job. It's what we pay her to do. Do NOT interrupt my first and only attempt of the day to sit down just so I can do her job. Did I mention I've been here since 6:45am and it's now 3pm and I am just NOW on my lunch break??
Dear Charge Nurse,
I already have 4 patients, I've been running around like crazy all day long, and I was the last one to take a lunch break (if you can call 7 minutes during which I inhaled food, a "break"). Did you really think I was the best choice to take on a 5th patient?? Especially when the patient is a POD2 small bowel transplant with everything under the sun going on with her. I mean, I am all about being a team player, but REALLY??
Dear Nurse in the Endoscopy unit,
I specifically told you my patient had blood products running at that you needed to be with her during transport. Not only did you not transport my patient, but you did not administer the blood products that she needed. You can expect an incident report from me.
Dear Ms. T,
You are my star patient and the only thing that got me through the day. PS - thanks for the baked treats!
Dear ICU nurses,
You are the bane of our existence. Just because you work in the ICU, you think you can ignore protocol. News Flash: Protocol is there for the safety of the patients. When you disregard it, you not only make our lives difficult, but you put the patient in danger. Next time you have a patient on a continuous PCA, I suggest you copy the flowsheet correctly. Next time you have a Heparin drip, I suggest you have the orders written down somewhere so that when I receive your patient I know what rate she should run at. Afterall, we wouldnt want her BLEEDING OUT b/c you couldnt give an appropriate hand-off of care. Seriously, I cant imagine what kind of a clusterfuck you people work in.
Dear bladder,
I am sorry I did not have time to empty you during my 14-hour work day. Please dont get infected.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
November 11
"I thank God for my life and for the stars and stripes. May freedom forever fly, let it ring.
Salute the ones who died, the ones that give their lives, so we don't have to sacrifice all the things we love."--ZBB
I cry every time I see this:
Salute the ones who died, the ones that give their lives, so we don't have to sacrifice all the things we love."--ZBB
I cry every time I see this:
Vacation?
Me: Haha, oh Ben. I love that you're even more cynical than I am.
Ben: Well when you get to a certain age, it's totally appropriate.
Me: When you get to a certain age? So are you saying its not appropriate that I'm cynical?
Ben: Haha, at your age, no. You're way too young to be cynical.
I think I am in desperate need of a vacation b/c I have found that I get super irritated at work very easily. I dont know if I just work too many shifts in a row (which has its perks since I usually get a couple days off in a row after that) but I have definitely noticed that my threshold for annoyance is significantly lower than it used to be. Dont get me wrong, I LOVE my job, and I LOVE being a nurse. If you've ever heard me talk about my job, you know that there really is NOTHING I would rather be doing with my life, but I just dont have the patience anymore. I know its all part of the job, but I'm tired of dealing with pharmacists who dont put in orders in a timely fashion; I'm tired of lab technicians who "lose" specimens; I'm tired of patients who pull out their IVs 20 minutes before my shift is over, who try to manipulate you for pain medicine, who refuse to get their assess out of bed and do anything for themselves, or patients who yell at you and question your nursing judgment. Sorry for the bitch-fest. I just need a break. Or I'll at least settle for a pleasant, appreciative patient who can remind me why I do what I do. Siiiiigh.
Ben: Well when you get to a certain age, it's totally appropriate.
Me: When you get to a certain age? So are you saying its not appropriate that I'm cynical?
Ben: Haha, at your age, no. You're way too young to be cynical.
I think I am in desperate need of a vacation b/c I have found that I get super irritated at work very easily. I dont know if I just work too many shifts in a row (which has its perks since I usually get a couple days off in a row after that) but I have definitely noticed that my threshold for annoyance is significantly lower than it used to be. Dont get me wrong, I LOVE my job, and I LOVE being a nurse. If you've ever heard me talk about my job, you know that there really is NOTHING I would rather be doing with my life, but I just dont have the patience anymore. I know its all part of the job, but I'm tired of dealing with pharmacists who dont put in orders in a timely fashion; I'm tired of lab technicians who "lose" specimens; I'm tired of patients who pull out their IVs 20 minutes before my shift is over, who try to manipulate you for pain medicine, who refuse to get their assess out of bed and do anything for themselves, or patients who yell at you and question your nursing judgment. Sorry for the bitch-fest. I just need a break. Or I'll at least settle for a pleasant, appreciative patient who can remind me why I do what I do. Siiiiigh.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Nurses know best. :-P
It still baffles me how doctors can write orders and "care for" patients without ever assessing their patients. I realize that this is part of their job and training to be able to do this to an extent, but I just dont understand how they can be the ones ordering treatments, medications, interventions, etc when they're not the ones at the bedside constantly evaluating the patients.
Last night I had a patient (W.) who was pretty lethargic, didnt want to keep his eyes open for me, and when he did open his eyes he had this blank stare on his face. He was just "off." W is pretty familiar to us but during previous admissions he'd always had kind of a weird affect, which of course made taking care of him last night that much more challenging because I couldnt tell if he was just being weird or if something was actually wrong. About 3 hours into my shift I decided to bring the doctors to take a look at the patient just for my own comfort and reassurance. We get to the W.'s room and of course he's sitting up in bed, eyes wide open and the docs look at me, give me a hard time and laugh, "Come on, Nikki. He's fine." And I just tried to defend myself and claim that he hadnt been like that the last 3 times I'd gone in to see him. I can tell they kind of believed me, but unfortunately they cant do anything since what they see is a patient who is alert and responsive. For the rest of the night I was constantly battling with W. to actually stay alert. He developed a low-grade fever (100.6) and the docs just said to give him Tylenol. I continued to claim that he was "off" but when the doctor would go in there, W. would either be asleep and the doc didnt want to wake him, or I would've just harassed W. and woken him up enough to a point where he could actually answer a question. They attributed his weirdness and lethargy to the fever, which is fair, but they still didnt want to do any more. I kept checking on him and his temp just kept increasing. By the time my shift was over, he was febrile (temp=103.6), tachy (HR=130's), tachypnic (respiratory rate=32-34), and borderline hypertensive (BP=145/100). Septic much? I think so. The day nurse ended up transferring him to the ICU 2 hours after I left and W. had a seizure within an hour of arriving to the ICU. ...Yeah, sure Dr. C, "He's fine."
...Just another reason doctors should listen to nurses.... :-P
Last night I had a patient (W.) who was pretty lethargic, didnt want to keep his eyes open for me, and when he did open his eyes he had this blank stare on his face. He was just "off." W is pretty familiar to us but during previous admissions he'd always had kind of a weird affect, which of course made taking care of him last night that much more challenging because I couldnt tell if he was just being weird or if something was actually wrong. About 3 hours into my shift I decided to bring the doctors to take a look at the patient just for my own comfort and reassurance. We get to the W.'s room and of course he's sitting up in bed, eyes wide open and the docs look at me, give me a hard time and laugh, "Come on, Nikki. He's fine." And I just tried to defend myself and claim that he hadnt been like that the last 3 times I'd gone in to see him. I can tell they kind of believed me, but unfortunately they cant do anything since what they see is a patient who is alert and responsive. For the rest of the night I was constantly battling with W. to actually stay alert. He developed a low-grade fever (100.6) and the docs just said to give him Tylenol. I continued to claim that he was "off" but when the doctor would go in there, W. would either be asleep and the doc didnt want to wake him, or I would've just harassed W. and woken him up enough to a point where he could actually answer a question. They attributed his weirdness and lethargy to the fever, which is fair, but they still didnt want to do any more. I kept checking on him and his temp just kept increasing. By the time my shift was over, he was febrile (temp=103.6), tachy (HR=130's), tachypnic (respiratory rate=32-34), and borderline hypertensive (BP=145/100). Septic much? I think so. The day nurse ended up transferring him to the ICU 2 hours after I left and W. had a seizure within an hour of arriving to the ICU. ...Yeah, sure Dr. C, "He's fine."
...Just another reason doctors should listen to nurses.... :-P
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Fall Back
Seriously? Adding an extra hour to your night can take up to a week to adjust to?? Try working 3 night shifts in a row and then switch your body clock back. Not fun.
Sidebar, I'm super excited to finally be able to go out on a weekend AND we get an extra hour of sleep (aka an extra hour to recover from the inevitable hangover)! :-p
Sidebar, I'm super excited to finally be able to go out on a weekend AND we get an extra hour of sleep (aka an extra hour to recover from the inevitable hangover)! :-p
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