Tuesday, July 22, 2008
good bad weird
Good things that have happened at work:
I noticed when one of my patients had early signs of bleeding internally (increased heart rate, low blood pressure...) and got my preceptor involved right away and we ended up calling a rapid response, which culminated with the attending physician coming into the room, taking one look at the patient, and saying something to the effect of "I'll see you in the operating room in 15 minutes". My preceptor congratulated me aftewards, saying I made a good catch.
I freely confess that the only reason I knew what was going on and that I needed to react quickly was because a former coworker told me about a nurse who got fired because they missed the early signs of a patient bleeding internally after surgery, and the patient died. When I heard the story, I promised myself that would not happen when I was a nurse. I had lunch with my former coworker last week and told her about my "good catch" and she was so proud of me. :)
I've been handling three patients relatively independently for a couple of weeks.
Yesterday, a patient who used to be a nurse told me that she appreciated having me as her nurse because every time I came in the room, she and her family felt calmer and more in control. That was super nice to hear, especially considering that she used to be on the other side of the bed, as it were.
I'm down 15.5 pounds since NCLEX. I credit long days of work in addition to dieting.
Bad things that have happened at work:
I've gotten to the end of my shift with little charting done and have had to stay late on more than one occasion.
I cared for a new paraplegic who was so positive and so in denial and he told me "I'm going to work hard and walk again!" and I actually started to tear up, it was so sad. Ouch.
I just worked 4 days in a row and I am tuckered out.
Weird things that have happened at work:
I took care of a person who was in the trouble with the law and was guarded by a series of police officers. One of whom tried to hit on me. That hasn't happened before.
Head-injured patient who is very confused and yells all the time saying to me "I HOPE YOU DON'T THINK I'M A F***ING PUSSY!" after asking me for pain meds. Heh. No, buddy. You've got broken bones, not a lack of courage.
So there you go. Little snapshot of what I've been doing. I'm still orienting through the 3rd week of August, then I will apparently be joining up with my future colleagues on the new unit.
I freely confess that the only reason I knew what was going on and that I needed to react quickly was because a former coworker told me about a nurse who got fired because they missed the early signs of a patient bleeding internally after surgery, and the patient died. When I heard the story, I promised myself that would not happen when I was a nurse. I had lunch with my former coworker last week and told her about my "good catch" and she was so proud of me. :)
Bad things that have happened at work:
Weird things that have happened at work:
So there you go. Little snapshot of what I've been doing. I'm still orienting through the 3rd week of August, then I will apparently be joining up with my future colleagues on the new unit.
Labels: nursing
