Vampira the Nightshift Nurse to Esteemed Colleague regarding extremely critical patient after reviewing current labs and x-rays: It looks like this patient might be turning a corner.
Esteemed Colleague: I’m thinking it’s more like he is turning on his blinker to prepare for the turn.
Vampira the Nightshift Nurse: You might be right. Just as long as he doesn’t leave it on and blinking for miles and miles like the idiot in front of me today on 99 from Ripon to Modesto.
Over the years I have seen the good, the fabulous, the bad and the downright ugly when it comes to the nurse week swag offered to us by way of the hospitals, the vendors and the doctors. I have enjoyed the catered luncheons and dinners, the hand and neck massages, the free CE classes, the gift certificates for scrubs and nursing conferences, the t-shirts, the coffee mugs, the lunch boxes and even the cheap-ass calculators from the Dollar Store. It boils down to the fact that although we are overworked and underpaid in comparison to the hospitals, the vendors and the docs, we are appreciated by the the hospitals, the vendors and the docs.
So although I missed out on the festivities, if there were any in my workplace, I did recieve this awesome travel coffee mug that I can add to the cupboard full of travel coffee mugs here under the Big Top. It’s a very special coffee mug. I know this because I read the special message on the bottom of the mug.
Nothing says you are valued and appreciated for all you do like a lead based travel coffee mug. I can’t wait to use it.
Um, well actually I do. But I don’t know nothing about supporting my own baby girl through the labor and delivery of her own baby girl. So today it is off to childbirth preparation class I go.
I promise to try and keep my mouth shut and let the nurse teach the class.
So this week is National Patient Safety Awareness Week. As health care providers in the facility where I work the focus this week is on hand hygiene. I’m all for that. Good, consistent hand hygiene is the cornerstone to our own good health as well as promoting the health of those around us. I recently caught an episode of SCRUBS that drove home (like coffin nails) the importance of good hand hygiene and how we so easily we can spread the greenest, yuckiest (and sometimes deadliest) yuck amongst ourselves. I wish I could find a link to this episode to share with all of you. Just imagine everything and everyone you touch turns green when your hands make contact. That green is the germs being spread.
Hand Hygiene people. It’s all about washing our hands. Seriously.
So this week our hospital is focusing on the importance of good hand hygiene amongst health care workers, visitors and patients. Everyone needs to wash their hands and sing kumbaya right now. Everywhere you look there is posters and handouts inviting everyone to our love-fest for clean hands. It is truly a beautiful thing. But wait, as if that is not incentive enough when staff, patients or guests are randomly “caught” practicing good hand hygiene this week we could quite possibly be the recipient of FABULOUS prizes including
That’s right folks, you too can be the lucky winner of your very own bottle of Avagard, just like the professionals use. And to think keeping yourself and your loved ones healthy was incentive enough. I don’t know about you but I am all a-quiver…and rubbing and scrubbing my hands.
For better or for worse I got the good word this afternoon that I got the part time position that I applied for. I’m still going to be Vampira-the-night-shift-nurse just not as sleep deprived. Considering how tired I am right now that is a very good thing. It will also mean more flexibility with my scheduling which (hopefully) means a little bit more ease while juggling. Regaining my slacker-nurse status will be a very good thing I am sure.
This is what I wore last night. I was hot…in more ways than one. Caring for a patient with MRSA and E Coli meningitis plus covering for another nurse and attending a delivery of a baby with a momma with active herpes lesions I was more than willing to dress up and sweat a little. Okay, I was sweating a lot.
Now when I wrote in the last post that I didn’t want to go to work, I didn’t mean that I wanted to get called away from work for an emergency. Holly ended up in the ER with severe pain and cramping.
They say nurses sometimes make the worst kind of patients. I’m thinking I am far worse as the support person for a patient. With my mind racing after my fears I managed to behave pretty badly trying to locate my daughter’s room, inquiring what labs were to be drawn and questioning why I couldn’t come with her to have an ultrasound done.
Staring at her empty bed in the ER I was thinking, “WTF?! Why can’t I come with her? What if…? Oh for goodness sakes? Didn’t that tech see my hospital badge? I need to be with my little girl! What can possibly be taking so long?
And just before I was going to rush out to the nurses’ station to demand, er, see what could be taking so long, in comes Holly with the ultrasound tech.
The baby is fine. In fact, the little one was part of a major dance party (complete with flashing disco ball) inside the mommy-club. The problem is kidney stones…again. The treatment is rest, lots and lots of fluids and tylenol for pain.
She’s down with that as you can see.
Now, I’m wondering what is the treatment for the mother-to-be’s mom?
Side note: As it stands now, the Vegas trip is tentatively still on.
I’m still here. I have just been working a little too hard lately and currently am trying to shift my body back to daytime living now that I have a stretch of days off. Work has been pretty tough…lots of sick babies as usual, lots of exceptionally scared, concerned and, unfortunately, needy parents. Really I don’t fault them. I know exactly how helpless they feel, really. Still it does wear even the best nurse out in an intensive care setting. We are humans too. Even we become emotionally spent. Because of that I am thankful for a few days off. May be after a little R & R, er, laundry and housework, I will be a little more creatively minded.
In the meantime, I do come with something to share. Daniel has a new camera which he has been using a lot today. You can check out a sampling of his work here. It seems to be a study of mommy’s water bottle.
