Wow...a weekend to end a weekend!

Well this has been a busy weekend. It was so busy I can barely remember Friday...although I'm sure I worked and busted my butt! Apparently there can be drama all the time! Oh, now I remember ...Friday night was the Ms. Newbie Nurse ForEver night...so was Saturday...hummmmm, and come to think of it so was Sunday. Maybe I should just change rotations for a rest from Ms NNFE??? Anyway.

More drama....we had a nurses aide, one of the few that really seemed to love his job, going to college, has a spouse and a child...and...apparently a very short fuse! He got mad at somebody (?) and just left. Packed up his crap and buzzed out of the farm! Didn't tell anybody, didn't do anything but pick up his stuff and go. Is that Ball's or utter stupidity. Oh, and for two hours we were looking for him, then we thought perhaps he had left to go to the closest burger joint to get chow and forgot to tell anybody...then we were checking the emergency room...finally the power that be decided to check the security camera's ... and there he was ... all packed up...and ....fade-out into the darkness (kinda like riding off into the sunset!). Wonder how that will look on his next application.
Reason for leaving last place of employment: I got Pissed. Oh, and when they check the "reference"....................hummmmmmmmmmmm.

Then tonight, our Nurses Aide got sick and didn't tell anybody...until she suddenly just grabbed the other aide to take her to the Emergency room. We had to hunt down everything she hadn't charted (like the vital signs, weight, and glucometers..) finish her work...empty foleys, nun's caps and urinals, throw trash, clean up linens. Now don't get me wrong....she was sick...but a little warning...like "I don't feel so hot, and I've thrown up three times" might have been helpful. You know throwing up three times is a clue something is up...and we wouldn't have been caught running about like the KeyStone Cops!

This KeyStone Cop didn't even start charting until 6:15 a.m. due to Ms NNFE's patient almost coding, the need to speak to the MD for her because she freaked and just handed me the phone! I didn't even know the patient's name! I didn't even know who I was talking to! But I did impart the facts pretty swiftly ! Then I had to drop the NGT because "I've never done it" says Ms NNFE (what do they teach now-a-days in Nursing School??? Gee I want a BA degree too!). Then although she "apparently" had all the tubing and paraphanilia for the suction hooked up...it was an illusion. My bad, I didn't check to make sure it actually WORKED before attempting to use it on the projectile bile vomiting patient! Can we say ASPIRATION! Oh, and her answer later when I questioned if she knew how to hook it up .... ditto..you guessed it. NOW THAT IS SCARY, SHE'S BEEN WORKING PCCU FOR 8 MONTHS AND SHE DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO CHECK A SUCTION SET-UP AND CANNISTER FOR ACTUAL...SUCTION??????

I'm tired...a little wired up, a little pissed at myself for still trying so hard to teach somebody...then I make a stupid little New Nurse Mistake myself! Humbling....and I will try harder to have patience...after all I certainly don't know it all, and sometimes I need the little slap down to remind me of that.

One Good Night!

Don't know why I had such a good night last night. Could be cause we ran out of tele packs before I ran out of empty rooms (hurrah!) and they didn't send any medical admits....(hurrah)! So I had 4 stable mables and no crash-n-burns or circling the draino's! (hurrah!) I had sssssssssssuuuuuuuch
a good night I was able to help my less fortunate co-worker Ms. Newbie Nurse Forever with her patient's...and do all the things she claimed she hadn't done yet (guess she forgot who trained her and signed off on all the things that she did!). Any how...even then there was some drama. The lady Ms. I'm Confused and Don't Know it Yet (ICADKIY FOR SHORT) managed to pull out her IV and she was on a heparin drip ...and drip she did...drip dripdripdrip...drizzle...drip.drip.drip. , and the little pregnant aide freaked out!!!! HEY...HEY ... HEY SHE'S BLEEDING IN HERE...DO SOMETHING...DO SOMETHING...HEY..HEY...HEY SHE'S BLEEDING IN HERE. Ms PG stands there wringing her hands watching the steady flow of blood onto the clean gown and floor...flowing down the arm and steadily dripping. Hey Ms. Newbie Nurse Forever..your patient has pulled her IV out and HEY..HEY..HEY she's bleeding in here (picture blue gloved hand wringing...notice no body has bothered to apply pressure yet) Ms. NNFE sniff's...well I'm too busy...I'm doing something...I'll be there in a little bit.
More blue-gloved hand wringing. I look around the corner as I trot out of my patient's room. HEY HEY HEY....SHE'S BLEEDING...DO SOMETHING. I holler, well put some pressure on it...I put 4X4's in there an hour ago when it was leaking and I fixed it for Ms. NNFE! I get a blank look. Either she didn't understand 4x4 or I didn't understand that she wasn't touching the patient for love or money....maybe a lot of money...but not what she's getting paid! I go in and save the day. Amazing what some 4x4's and a little reassurance will do to a bleeding patient. I clean her up, change the gown, wrap her in a warm blanket and put her back to bed. Super Nurse Has Once Again Saved the Day for Newbie Nurse Forever (and that was between taking care of my job and two others of her's). sigh, and i just thought she was getting the hang of it.