Been Slacking (shifts 86, 87, 88, 89, and 90)

I've been a horrible blogger lately.  Thing is, after my 2nd and 3rd shift last week, I had 4 days off and I just did nothing.  Then this week I worked 3 days, and now I have 7 days off in which I would like to also do nothing. 

At any rate, there really hasn't been much going on. Day in and day out its the same....some sick patients, a few really sick patients, and then a bunch of patients who you wonder why they actually came to the ER in the first place.  

On the day of shift 86 I worked 2pm-2am and I was sent home early at 11:30pm due to it being slow.  The next shift, shift 87, I worked 11am-11pm and at 7:30pm I was sent home due to it also being slow.  On my last shift this week, shift 90, I was called at 11am and told that they were slow and that I wouldn't need to come in until 7pm.  I was supposed to work 2pm-2am, but I worked 7pm-2am instead.  It stinks to lose the time, but I am able to use my vacation time to make up for the lost hours.  The good thing is I still have a little over a week of vacation time after using it for getting off early/going in late, so I'm not upset.  And I get to spend extra time with my family, so thats always a plus.  

The only other thing I can think of to talk about is that fact that I am probably moving to day shift.  This would begin with the next schedule that hasn't yet been posted, which is the Aug 26-Sept 22 schedule.  I haven't heard official confirmation of this yet, but it seems pretty likely to happen.  Basically, one the day nurses put in her notice and told me about it, so I went to my clinical coordinator and asked what the chances were that I could move to days.  She told me they were thinking of moving me anyway because of the fact that I am still so new and I really should have a full assignment every shift so that I can learn to organize, prioritize, and see things from beginning to end.  I agree.  Also, one of the night charge nurses has been giving me a hard time and I have recently just gotten completely fed up with her, and making a move to days would be better for my sanity.  Its busier, the techs aren't as helpful during day shift (I don't know why that is) but the days got by faster for some reason and the 2pm-2am shift just drags on forever.  I'm pretty tired of working to 2:30am-3am and getting to sleep somewhere between 3:30-4:30am on work nights.  I sleep until 11 or 12 and half my day is gone.....however, its better than night shift where I'd lose my whole day, so I won't complain. 

Anyway, that's all for now.  I am off until Wed and then I have a horrendous schedule.  Work Wed, off Thurs, work Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon, off Tues and then work Wed.  Six out of eight days working....bleh.  But the bright side of that is I will have six days off after that.  I'll keep you posted on the move to days.

Until next time......

Shifts 82, 83, 84, and 85

My shifts have been pretty uneventful lately.  Most of my patients are usually not very sick.  Most of the patients I see lately are patients that could have seen a primary doctor for their issues.  However, the only interesting thing I can talk about is tonight (shift 85), I had a patient come in that I saw during my last shift, which was on Wednesday.  She came in with stomach pain that never went away from last time she was here, only it spread up into the left side of her chest and it was a lot worse that it was before.  The pain had gotten worse in the last 3 hours.  Turns out she had ST segment elevations in her EKG, which means it was a bad heart attack. (ST elevation=bad!).  Since we cannot do cardiac catheterizations in our hospital, she had to be transferred to another hospital.  The ER doctor had ordered a nitroglycerin drip IV, and since she was on the drip, I had to go with her during the transfer (the paramedics cannot manage drips like that during transport).  It was the first time I ever transported a patient to another hospital.  We drove lights and sirens on the way to the other hospital.  It was a neat experience, but it was unfortunate for the patient, though.

That's all I have for now.  I am working three days straight- today was day one.  Stay tuned for days two and three......and then I have a nice 4 days off.

Until then.....

Shifts 79, 80 and 81

The last several shifts have been pretty uneventful.  During day shift, I have been floating, helping draw labs, give meds, assess patients, bring patients who were admitted to their rooms upstairs......things like that.  Nothing interesting to talk about.  I have one shift tomorrow, then off for one day, and then two shifts the next two days after that.

Until then.......