I had a really good day at work yesterday. We, with the exception of the nurse that relieved me and his poor orientee, but I'll get to that later.
I was in IMU - which is an ICU stepdown unit. The patients aren't well enough for a general medical floor, but they're not critical. It's one of my favorite units to work on, because I never have more than 3 patients, which means I actually get to spend some time with them, instead of running up and down the hall slingshotting pills into people. I get the chance to take a closer look at their history, do some teaching with them and their families, and really be hands on in terms of the level of care I give, which for me is very satisfying.
I had one patient who just tickled me to no end. He was in his early 50's, paraplegic and mildly retarded. By now most of you know that I love working with the MR/DD population (Mentally retarded, developmentally disabled), I really enjoy caring for them, and they seem to respond well to me. This guy was so funny, he kept kissing my hand and blowing kisses at me, and asking if I had a boyfriend. I told him I did (I don't but that's what I tell all my patients, keeps the men from crossing the line. Sometimes), but that he could be my friend.
He had a MASSIVE sacral (butt for all you non medical folk) wound that needed a huge, involved dressing, so about an hour before I was going to change it, I gave him 2 Vicodin, and after they'd kicked in, I went in to do the dressing change. Because of where the wound was, I had to lay him almost on his belly, which meant that I had to empty his colostomy bag. So I did, and as soon as I opened it he said "Girl that STANKS, did you fart?" and started laughing.
I lost it, and started laughing too.
I got him turned over, and started dressing the wound, and he started talking about how much he loves music. I asked him what he liked to listen to, and he said he loved 70's R&B,. He said Barry White, a 40oz and a good woman was all he needed to "get my squeeze on". After I stopped laughing, i asked if his pain medication was keeping him comfortable, and he said it was. Then he started singing I Can See Clearly Now, so I started singing along.
It was such a weird, cool, absurd moment, the 2 of us singing...it's gonna be a bright, bright sunshiny day... as I'm up to my wrist in his wound, stuffing gauze around his tailbone. But then, that's what a lot of nursing is, these moments of absurdity, intimacy, pathos and humor all rolled into one. I live for those moments, it's why I've stayed in hospital nursing for as long as I have. You don't get those moments from behind a managers desk.
Between him, and my other patient, ( an 85 year old who looked like he was in his mid 60's, and was completely alert) I got to spend the day with two sweet men who both were appreciative of everything I did for them. It made up for getting canceled Sat morning, switched to night shift, getting to work at 7pm on Sat and being told they didn't need me and then trying to fall asleep after the 3 cups of coffee I'd had so I could stay awake for the night shift I didn't end up working!
It even made up for the night shift nurse who decided to show off for the new graduate nurse he was orienting by nit picking everything I did over the course of my shift. He questioned every telephone order I wrote, every progress note, even tried to nit pick my interpretation of the telemetry strips on my patients.
He questioned why I held a dose of Vancomycin, when the order clearly said to hold if the Pt's trough level was >20. The patients level was 22.1, and he wanted to know if I'd called the MD. Well no, I hadn't, I had called the Pharmacy MD, because that's who wrote the Vanc order, and that's who I was supposed to call. So while I stood there, he called the MD about it, the MD asked him was the Pharm MD called, he said yes, and the MD said "Then why are you calling me?" and hung up on him.
Then he asked about the output from the patients colostomy. Usually colostomy output is liquid or semi liquid, so you chart it in cc's. This patients output wasn't liquid, it was solid. I'd charted that he had 2 formed stools, and he asked "Did you measure them?" I said "Yes. There were two."
He got pissed off and walked away, and his orientee started laughing as soon as he was out of earshot.
With all the nitpicking this asshole did, I ended up not clocking out until 7:50pm, so at least I got an extra hours worth of pay out of the aggravation!
I was in IMU - which is an ICU stepdown unit. The patients aren't well enough for a general medical floor, but they're not critical. It's one of my favorite units to work on, because I never have more than 3 patients, which means I actually get to spend some time with them, instead of running up and down the hall slingshotting pills into people. I get the chance to take a closer look at their history, do some teaching with them and their families, and really be hands on in terms of the level of care I give, which for me is very satisfying.
I had one patient who just tickled me to no end. He was in his early 50's, paraplegic and mildly retarded. By now most of you know that I love working with the MR/DD population (Mentally retarded, developmentally disabled), I really enjoy caring for them, and they seem to respond well to me. This guy was so funny, he kept kissing my hand and blowing kisses at me, and asking if I had a boyfriend. I told him I did (I don't but that's what I tell all my patients, keeps the men from crossing the line. Sometimes), but that he could be my friend.
He had a MASSIVE sacral (butt for all you non medical folk) wound that needed a huge, involved dressing, so about an hour before I was going to change it, I gave him 2 Vicodin, and after they'd kicked in, I went in to do the dressing change. Because of where the wound was, I had to lay him almost on his belly, which meant that I had to empty his colostomy bag. So I did, and as soon as I opened it he said "Girl that STANKS, did you fart?" and started laughing.
I lost it, and started laughing too.
I got him turned over, and started dressing the wound, and he started talking about how much he loves music. I asked him what he liked to listen to, and he said he loved 70's R&B,. He said Barry White, a 40oz and a good woman was all he needed to "get my squeeze on". After I stopped laughing, i asked if his pain medication was keeping him comfortable, and he said it was. Then he started singing I Can See Clearly Now, so I started singing along.
It was such a weird, cool, absurd moment, the 2 of us singing...it's gonna be a bright, bright sunshiny day... as I'm up to my wrist in his wound, stuffing gauze around his tailbone. But then, that's what a lot of nursing is, these moments of absurdity, intimacy, pathos and humor all rolled into one. I live for those moments, it's why I've stayed in hospital nursing for as long as I have. You don't get those moments from behind a managers desk.
Between him, and my other patient, ( an 85 year old who looked like he was in his mid 60's, and was completely alert) I got to spend the day with two sweet men who both were appreciative of everything I did for them. It made up for getting canceled Sat morning, switched to night shift, getting to work at 7pm on Sat and being told they didn't need me and then trying to fall asleep after the 3 cups of coffee I'd had so I could stay awake for the night shift I didn't end up working!
It even made up for the night shift nurse who decided to show off for the new graduate nurse he was orienting by nit picking everything I did over the course of my shift. He questioned every telephone order I wrote, every progress note, even tried to nit pick my interpretation of the telemetry strips on my patients.
He questioned why I held a dose of Vancomycin, when the order clearly said to hold if the Pt's trough level was >20. The patients level was 22.1, and he wanted to know if I'd called the MD. Well no, I hadn't, I had called the Pharmacy MD, because that's who wrote the Vanc order, and that's who I was supposed to call. So while I stood there, he called the MD about it, the MD asked him was the Pharm MD called, he said yes, and the MD said "Then why are you calling me?" and hung up on him.
Then he asked about the output from the patients colostomy. Usually colostomy output is liquid or semi liquid, so you chart it in cc's. This patients output wasn't liquid, it was solid. I'd charted that he had 2 formed stools, and he asked "Did you measure them?" I said "Yes. There were two."
He got pissed off and walked away, and his orientee started laughing as soon as he was out of earshot.
With all the nitpicking this asshole did, I ended up not clocking out until 7:50pm, so at least I got an extra hours worth of pay out of the aggravation!
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