Hopeful...again

There is a full time position opened for night shift. Word on the street is, I might be in line for it. I actually hope this is true, because, alot of crazy things happen during the night, and it would make for some awesome blog material (hopefully).

I also get to do some training in the ER soon. I'm not sure if I'm happy or scared about it.

Code status

I know I haven't been a nurse for long, and there is alot of things I don't know. But one thing I do know, when a patient is a full code, and they are at the back of the hall having respiratory distress, you don't leave them to tell your co-workers that the patient may code soon.

This seriously happened the other night at shift change.

Luckily the MD was in the hallway, and the family members present said it was ok to let him go in peace. So the MD wrote the order, and the patient went quietly about a minute later.

This has been a very trying week at work. And now, it's time to buy a boat and ride out the hurricane!

Poor life choices

It's never fun to have a patient that is admitted for alcohol addiction and withdraw. It's worse when that patient is someone whom you used to be very good friends with in high school.

I haven't seen my friend or her family in years. It was a sad reunion when she was lying in bed very sick and delusional. She always had such high dreams for her life, and I thought she was out trying to accomplish them. It was hard to know that she was working only to buy alcohol and get drunk every night. Luckily her family decided it was time to put an end to the problem before things got too out of control. 22 is much too young to lose someone to poison.

I appologise

It has been a crazy time, and i haven't posted in a while. But I haven't forgot about it. I promise new things coming up soon!

White on white

I got called into the bosses office this morning, because someone complained you could see the line of my underwear through my pants. My underwear were white, my pants were white. There was nothing wrong with my pants, someone just complained that I was wearing underwear.

My boss asked me to go home and change. Problem was, we were short on staff, and I would be gone for an hour and a half. My boss lives right down the street from the hospital, and couldn't imagine why I would be gone for so long. She didn't realize that because this is the only hospital in 4 counties, I am limited on how far I have to drive to get a job.

Since she couldn't risk having me go home and being even more short on staff, I had to go to surgery and borrow pants. The crazy thing is, even with their pants, you could still see that I was wearing underwear. But by then the boss went home for the evening.

Stupid, stupid people.

Funny shit

Someone was referred to my blog by Google searching "nursing pisses me off". Whoever you are, I completely feel your pain.

And I hope that reading my struggles has made you feel better.

Trust me, you are not alone. I'm just humbled to know that my page is what comes up when that is searched. Hopefully, whoever you are out there, you don't give up.

And if you liked what you read enough to come back a second time, then send me a comment, I would love to talk to you, and hear why nursing pisses you off. :)

My life lately

Sorry folks, I haven't had much time to post.

Basically, I am a float nurse, working in our small hospital wherever they need me. And so far things have been going really good. I had a few days of training on one floor, and was then called in to work my first shift by myself. I must say, that keeping about 10 people alive for 12 hours without help (except for the CNAs), was an amazing experience, and it made my confidence in myself grow a huge amount. I thought before that  I could do it, but now I know I can. The feeling that I had at 0700 when I walked out of that hospital was completely indescribable.

The best part of it was knowing that I completed a shift in which I had no training. It was night shift. Nurse manager just told me that she had faith in me to do it, because I worked night shift for 4 years as an aide.

And I have been on my own ever since, for the most part. So my 6 week orientation was actually 2.5 until I was on my own. They are short on help, but not enough that they can hire me for a full time position. So until then, I'm scheduled for 2 days a week, and I get called in constantly to cover for everyone else. Which I can't say I   mind much, because I get a bonus every time I come in to cover. And I still end up with 40 hours a week.

The only downfall to working as a floater is that I have a lot of things to remember. Each floor has different policies about charting- how many times to chart a shift, different things that have to be charted, etc. And there are also different assessments and things that have to be done depending on where I'm working. Luckily since I am still new people don't mind helping me out. But I'm afraid the help is going to stop.