Friday, July 28, 2006
Well.. bout the shittest day I have had in a week or two today and that is saying something.
Sun/Mon/Tues I had a lady who needed 1:1 care but had 3 or 4 other patients as well.
She is a big lady,had a big surgery, wound broke down, went back to theatre,multiple times, had all the IV stuff she could have, mutliple drugs to give, incontinentof both urine and poop... basically a big job. I had one woman I nearly smacked, I go in there in the morning, I have the 1:1 lady and a guy who we decided was dying half way through Monday, I walk in to this womans room and ask her about her medications which takes about half an hour with how slow she was being, then she says sweetly oh my eggs are cold, I am like... I don't think they are, breakfast just arrived, she says I think they need heating up, I pick the plate up, its still pretty warm underneath...ahh the plate is still pretty warm, oh she says, I still think they need warming up. At this stage, with the worload I have, I am about ready to stab her to death, but I do it and work continues on its horrible way.
So today I go and I have the High dependancy unit, 4 patients who are pretty soon out of surgery are all very complex and heavy workload. So at the start of the morning I look through and start out on the meds, get told that we have to get two people out of the Unit this morning so that I can get two new post op patients. I tell them who can move, but first I have to do all their meds, put them in the shower etc etc. One of the guys is demented, he finger paints with the poo when he is incontinent, so what happens but he is incontinent... bleh. I have a lady with an epidural, its not good, both her epidural and her IV line are on the same IV pole, so there is always the possibility of changing the wrong pump, eventually I get this sorted after washing her in bed. One lady is constipated, normally we would give stuff for it, but becuase she is close post surgery I can't without DR's orders, but i don['t have time to stop to call the DR and the in charge is flat out on the ward, everything is going to shit outside the unit. So I am walking up to get some alcohol wipes to clean the shit from the guy off his nurse call bell and the bed rails, the cariac arrest bell goes off, I race up, the guy is blue definately coded, I run in to help and write down stuff, help with the resus am there half an hour, the guy dies :So I go back to my patients, no break no nothing, I move the first patient out, his blood sugar is low, he needs to eat and drink, but he is demented or stupid, not sure which, so I give him lemonade and tell him i want it drunk now, so he takes two sips and puts it down, I can't stay to watch him.
I go back to my room, my lady with the epidural is having problems, the level of numbness is moving up her chest too far so I have to turn it off and call the doctor. Both my patients from theater come back within 20 minutes of each other, I have to settle them in, change their IV's to being pumped, check their wounds/dressings/drains/IV/pain relief and I have to do their pulse, blood pressure, temp and oxygen saturations 1/2 hrly for the first hour. I don't have time to take the sheets out from under them. All 6 of them are on hourly urine measures, I have to worry about the lady with the epidural, her pain relief is an issue now, the epidural has pretty much worn off gah!! so i have to call the doctor back and check whether I can turn it back on and at what rate.
Damn work sucks.
Hmm read back on the "the guy dies" comment and it sounded kinda harsh, I am tired out, we did our best for him but he was very unwell and it was better we let him go.
okay rant finished.
Laters
Sun/Mon/Tues I had a lady who needed 1:1 care but had 3 or 4 other patients as well.
She is a big lady,had a big surgery, wound broke down, went back to theatre,multiple times, had all the IV stuff she could have, mutliple drugs to give, incontinentof both urine and poop... basically a big job. I had one woman I nearly smacked, I go in there in the morning, I have the 1:1 lady and a guy who we decided was dying half way through Monday, I walk in to this womans room and ask her about her medications which takes about half an hour with how slow she was being, then she says sweetly oh my eggs are cold, I am like... I don't think they are, breakfast just arrived, she says I think they need heating up, I pick the plate up, its still pretty warm underneath...ahh the plate is still pretty warm, oh she says, I still think they need warming up. At this stage, with the worload I have, I am about ready to stab her to death, but I do it and work continues on its horrible way.
So today I go and I have the High dependancy unit, 4 patients who are pretty soon out of surgery are all very complex and heavy workload. So at the start of the morning I look through and start out on the meds, get told that we have to get two people out of the Unit this morning so that I can get two new post op patients. I tell them who can move, but first I have to do all their meds, put them in the shower etc etc. One of the guys is demented, he finger paints with the poo when he is incontinent, so what happens but he is incontinent... bleh. I have a lady with an epidural, its not good, both her epidural and her IV line are on the same IV pole, so there is always the possibility of changing the wrong pump, eventually I get this sorted after washing her in bed. One lady is constipated, normally we would give stuff for it, but becuase she is close post surgery I can't without DR's orders, but i don['t have time to stop to call the DR and the in charge is flat out on the ward, everything is going to shit outside the unit. So I am walking up to get some alcohol wipes to clean the shit from the guy off his nurse call bell and the bed rails, the cariac arrest bell goes off, I race up, the guy is blue definately coded, I run in to help and write down stuff, help with the resus am there half an hour, the guy dies :So I go back to my patients, no break no nothing, I move the first patient out, his blood sugar is low, he needs to eat and drink, but he is demented or stupid, not sure which, so I give him lemonade and tell him i want it drunk now, so he takes two sips and puts it down, I can't stay to watch him.
I go back to my room, my lady with the epidural is having problems, the level of numbness is moving up her chest too far so I have to turn it off and call the doctor. Both my patients from theater come back within 20 minutes of each other, I have to settle them in, change their IV's to being pumped, check their wounds/dressings/drains/IV/pain relief and I have to do their pulse, blood pressure, temp and oxygen saturations 1/2 hrly for the first hour. I don't have time to take the sheets out from under them. All 6 of them are on hourly urine measures, I have to worry about the lady with the epidural, her pain relief is an issue now, the epidural has pretty much worn off gah!! so i have to call the doctor back and check whether I can turn it back on and at what rate.
Damn work sucks.
Hmm read back on the "the guy dies" comment and it sounded kinda harsh, I am tired out, we did our best for him but he was very unwell and it was better we let him go.
okay rant finished.
Laters
3:29 AM
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Writing since January 2003!
web-counter? Maybe one day
BJ T now was S
Born in April on the 21st!
Australian but living in the USA.
Allison
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