I looked back at my blogs today, and gee it's been over a month since I wrote anything. So much has happened in that time frame. I left night shift and now I work days...not having any trouble getting up in the morning, just still working on time management skills since the day shift stuff is so different from the nights. Days is all about hussle and bussel and hurry up: Report, doctor rounds, med run, orders to take off, breakfast (for the patient's), pt's to and from tests, all that pretty much at the same time...then 11:00: doctors AGAIN, VISITORS, lunch (for the patient's), med run, whew...breath...usually by this time it is around 2 p.m. or 3 p.m., hummm I haven't eatten, drank, or urinated in 7 hours or more. I usually take a deep breath, and look for a sucker to cover the desk so I can do the three things I must do..eat, drink, and make water :). My 30 minute break is usually 15 minutes of food shoveled into my mouth, while usually having to go back out to answer family member or doctor questions. Sunday I actually got my salad dressing on my salad and had my first bite in my mouth...and had to leave for 45 minutes to round with a doctor...then a patient wanted pain meds, then somebody else stopped me...I thought I would pass out before I got back to the food. I have taken to keeping a coke in the fridge because my sugar drops so low I start getting black spots in front of my eyes! I had forgotten that about when I worked dayshift before.
The worst thing about days is that I am forced to carry a specta-link at all times...heaven forbid you actually are unable to talk, it always rings when you are in a patient's room, gowned, gloved and doing something that takes total concentration. If you fail to answer the phone...somebody will start banging on the door...hey answer your phone...off comes the gloves, off the gown, excuse me, I will be right back....WHAT HAPPENED TO: Allow me to finish my task with THIS patient, TAKE care of everything THIS patient needs at this moment before you pull me out to THAT patient's room. UNLESS it is an emergency each patient is EQUALLY in need of attention. I will get to EVERY patient's room as soon as I can, but I can NEVER be in SIX ROOMS at the EXACT same moment...can't somebody else: get them ice, turn them over, place their oxygen tubing back on, or take them to the bathroom? Why can't the AIDE or the SECRETARY ask them what they need first. "What do they need?" "Duh...I don't know, I'm not the Nurse, they said they want their Nurse." Insert VERY LOUD SCREAM HERE!
Deep breath...so in order to relieve all the stress of work I have taken up the extreme sport of Motorcycle riding...
