The Aftermath

Whoever said that weekend night shifts are boring has clearly never done them right. So there.

At Mayo, I have two clinical coaches that I work alongside. Both of them are great. They are encouraging to me and have really helped me learn. For blogging purposes, we'll name them Frosty and McFlurry. That being said however, whenever I work with McFlurry, something crazy happens. Together, we've experienced a full code, a BERT (behavioral emergency response team), a RRT (rapid response team-a step down from a full code), trying to get an MRI set up while continuously running Flolan through 20 feet of tubing, getting swung at, and other challenging but not as exciting adventures. I love them both, but McFlurry and I have been through a lot together.

I worked two 12 hour night shifts this weekend with McFlurry. I actually was able to stay up through the night without too much difficulty, but I am so glad it's over. It was not an easy weekend.

It started out great! Saturday night, we got all of our assessments, meds, and charting done nearly right away. It was a good thing too. One of our patients started experiencing delirium.  He kept trying to rip off monitors and oxygen masks. He was aggressive at some points. Basically, we were busy the entire night trying to get him to bed. It was a definite test of patience. I've never been cussed at or heard so much cussing in my life. I felt really bad about the whole thing because I know that wasn't his normal personality.

The next night- he was a different person. He was downright sweet. It was the most drastic change I've ever seen. The whole night was going rather smoothly. We were finishing up everything in the morning when one of our patients had a scary heart rhythm. McFlurry and I ran into the room and ended up calling RRT. Great way to end the morning.

That brings me to now. I had so much adrenaline pumping through me after the whole RRT thing that I couldn't really sleep this morning. I'm currently on a bus heading home to be in a friend's wedding this week.

Things to note:
Both nights around 4am, McFlurry and I treated ourselves to some ice cream. We deserved it right?
Also, on Saturday night, the nurses brought in some ingredients for a nacho bar.
The rumors are true. Night nurses eat a lot.
Coffee is glorious.
Also, dancing in the halls can help keep you awake.
When you're in the hospital, there's almost no way you're going to get a good night's sleep.
When giving report after a 12 hour night shift, be proud of yourself if you can be coherent.
One thing that threw me off the most was when I needed to brush my teeth. You brush your teeth when you get up and when you go to bed. For some reason, I wanted to brush my teeth at 7pm, 12am, 7am, after my morning nap, and after my afternoon nap. I was so thrown off. I guess there's no such thing as overkill when it comes to brushing your teeth.

More stories to come soon. Right now, I'm going to take a nap.