Just Another Day

I was really tempted to start this post with some classic Rebecca Black.
 "Seven A.M. wakin up in the mornin, gotta get dressed, gotta go downstairs. Gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereal, seein everything the time is ticking on and on, everybody's rushing, gotta make it to my bus stop."
I guess I just did. But it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

So anyways.... the true purpose of this post is to give you a little glimpse into my everyday life. Gone are the days when nurses were merely women with cute aprons tending broken limbs. No more do they only bathe a dying soul's forehead with a cool washcloth. We can only remember the times when nurses would put leeches on a limb to suck out the bad blood.

Ok...so what do nurses actually do? They can't order medications...they can't perform surgery...they can't decide hardly anything! What do they do?

Well.

5:30AM - alarm goes off
5:31AM- Caroline groans and reluctantly rolls out of bed.
6:00AM-pack lunch and eat breakfast
6:28AM- bus comes
6:40AM-arrive at hospital
6:42AM-get assignments and look up patient information
6:58AM-get the now essential coffee
7:00ish-get report and meet patients
7:15-9:00- Classify patients, check orders, look at heart rhythms, get vitals, do assessments, chart assessments, give meds. I like all of this to be done by 9:00 on an ideal day. It hardly ever happens like this because you end up talking to patients, getting them something they need, blah blah blah.
9:00-11ish- Most doctors round during this time. We always try to be there when they do so that we can get a clear picture of what's going on. Finish up morning tasks, get patients in shower or bed bath, often patients start the process of getting discharged at this time, catch up on charting, etc.
11-1ish- take another nurses patients for one of these hours and go to lunch for the other hour. This is when the morning rush is over and things potentially calm down.
1-3ish- a lot of patients are done with procedures around this time, so they come back and you have to do checks on them every 15 minutes or so. Sometimes on our floor, we pull sheaths from where they have catheters placed which takes a while. A lot of education happens if the patient is being discharged (education is one of my favorite parts). We get 2:00 vitals. We update the plans for the next nurse so that they have the basics for the next shift.
3:00-3:14- give report
3:15- catch the bus.

If you work the evening, it works nearly opposite. You have most people coming back from procedures early in your day. This requires a lot of vital signs and site checks. As the night goes on, a lot of the doctors leave, but sometimes the patients can actually be more complicated. I personally like the mornings better because you do everything that is assigned right off the bat. Then you can spend the rest of your day doing things like education and discharges and site cares.

PRN (as needed in nursing terms. Don't ask me why this is an abbreviation for 'as needed')
-If a patient changes in nearly anything, we call the doctors, get orders, and take care of it.
-We often get admissions that can come at any time during the day. That process takes a while because it requires a full assessment and asking a lot of questions.
-Patients have call lights going on all day. It could be because they want you to take their meal tray away or it could be because they are in serious pain.
-Patient head off to tests and stuff, so you have to make sure their monitors are off and they're all set to go.
-Patients take walks and if they are unstable, you have to go with them.
-Help people on bedpans or emptying urinals.
-Place orders for new IVs
-Talk to patients- this takes up a lot of time, but it is very valuable time. Patients can be very anxious or depressed, so talking to them is very important.
-Sometimes there's a situation that requires special care- like the time where I stayed in a patients room for hours because he was determined that he had to leave and go get his mail when he was hooked up to 8L of oxygen.
-Look up meds or procedures to make sure that the nurses know what's going on.
-So much more. Sometimes I don't even know how I spent my day.

Here's what I do know. I love it.
I can't emphasize enough how fulfilling this is for me. I love going to work. I love learning. I love figuring things out and being able to help change what's wrong. I love the nurses that I work with. I love my patients. I love educating. I love getting to see patients go home. I love hearing their stories. I love interacting with the families. I love getting to love on complete strangers. I love it all. I come home fulfilled and happy. I smile as I walk down the hallway. I want to learn more all the time. This is it. I've found my calling.