The shift started out with me walking in the door, past my director's office, who ended up stopping me and telling me that he resigned that morning. His last day in the beginning of June. His assistant/clinical coordinator had already gave her notice as she and her family were moving back home to another state. Her last day is mid-June. So, there will be a lot of changes coming in June. I'm not sure if I should be afraid or excited. The new people could be amazing, or they could be terrible. Actually, I think some of our current nurses are interviewing for the assistant/clinical coordinator position, so that will be nice the person who is hired is one of them.
Anyway, today was very busy. We had an extra nurse on the floor, so that was helpful. I had two patients during this shift that had to be admitted to ICU. The first patient I had before shift change. Another nurse on the floor had a patient that needed to go to ICU as well, and ICU happened to be full. So an ICU nurse came down and took care of the patients in our ER. I started taking care of the patient who would become my second ICU patient when one of the ICU patients that were being taken care of in our ER was downgraded from ICU status and was able to go to one of the other floors. I waited for the admitting doctor to call back to admit my second ICU patient, and it was nearing the end of my shift. I was hoping to get out at 2, but unfortunately, the charge nurse who was working rarely lets me out right at 2. At 2:15 the doctor calls, and I had to take orders. By the time that was done, I had to give that patient some stat meds. That took a little time, and by that time, my other 2 patients were up for discharge. I had to spend a little time discharging them, and then it was time to give report to the ICU nurse on my ICU patient (we give a report about the patients to the nurses to catch them up to speed about what is going on), but the nurse was busy at the moment. Then I realized I had to fill out some more paperwork about the patient, and I had to do a screen for admissions in the computer that usually I don't have to do but this particular charge nurse makes us nurses do it. By that time, it was 3:40am and I was finally able to walk out. If only I had left at 2, I would have avoided all that mess. But at least I didn't have to work the next day, and I had 2 days off, and I got some overtime so I guess I can't complain. Even though it was a busy day, I seem to be handling the stress better. I've noticed this with some of the busy days we've been having lately. That's a good thing. I'm getting closer to the halfway mark of my first year and I have learned and grown so much, but there's still a long way to go.
Shift 57:
Today was a relatively slower day. It wasn't "slow", but definitely better than the other day. It stayed pretty steady most of the day, but nothing stressful. After shift change, I was floating, and it started slowing down pretty well. At midnight, my charge nurse asked if I wanted to go home, and I said yes since today was Mother's Day and I didn't want to have to sleep in too long like I would if I got out around 2. It was a good shift. I actually looked forward to going into work this shift. Maybe it was because of who was going to be charge nurse for the night shift, but regardless, I am feeling better and better about going to work. I really just think I am still trying to adjust to not being off whenever I want to be and with not being able to be with my kids and family like I used to be when I was a stay at home mom. In time I will feel better about that. I am slowly adjusting. I was off for 9 years and its going to take time to get used to not having the same freedoms I had before. But the good thing is I only work 3 days a week, so I still have a lot more freedom that a lot of working people. And I get to help people in the process.
I have three days back to back this week, so I am going to be exhausted. I will write when I can, but it might be Wednesday after the third shift. Then I have a wonderful 4 days off, including my first full weekend off in a month! I am so looking forward to that. Until then......
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