I should have known it would be a wild night

Specialties Ob/Gyn

Published

Specializes in cardiac, diabetes, OB/GYN.

i should know by now to judge the night by the amount of broken or missing equipment and lack of supplies. i arrive. full floor with 4 patients in delivery. forget help from those girls, they are up to their necks over there. so, we decide our assignment by tossing a napkin in the air and picking the side closest to us ( how is that for charge delegation). i get one side, but happen to answer a call light on the other so rush down there to find a fresh c/s vomiting all over the place. do we have any sheets? a couple. any pillowcases nope....i wrestle the paper bag out of her hands and replace it with a wash basin. just in time. now i have inherited that patient. her mother is staying with her. there is another bed in the room and i ask them not to use it. i come back to find the family camped in it just as delivery tells me they are sending a patient out to occupy that bed. i tactfully throw out the non english speaking elderly woman. she has no ride home. we search for a reclining chair. we all have back injuries. we drag it in anyway. i run over my foot. i take a laundry cart with me down my end to put papers on with my cheat sheet and the wheels fall off and it collapses in front of me...a patient asks for a peri bottle and a sitz bath. we are out of both. someone wants an ice pack pad. by mistake or simply to taunt us, someone has sent up actual sports ice packs. i nix that idea. bed 2 of the now doubled room is not happy that bed one is snoring. bed one tells me i need to call the doctor to go down to the storeroom (right) and get the supplies she requested...i try not to laugh. she is a wealthy patient. all the way down the other end an emergency buzzer sounds so i hightail it down there (hoping i don't die from either an mi or whatever sciatic thing has lately assailed me) to find that she cannot get her peirced earring through her newly pierced ear. can i please do it for her. this is a new one for me. delivery calls. they tell me they don't know what the presenting part is on one of their patients. neither one can reach the cervix. i find the cervix and determine its vertex. they call the md anyway. he, mercifully, agrees with me. i walk out of the room. (he is already gone of course) and i hear the ever so lovely grunting sound of pushing. i am not delivery this night, but they beg me to go in. they can't find the cervix, remember? they are new....9 cms! -2 to 0 in 10 minutes. i beg them to let me go back to pp. another patient comes through. she is way posterior. they can't find her freaking cervix...back i go....its there but 1 cm.... back to pp. wealthy foreign lady tells me her hand is itchy. iv is toast. restart it. giving report and someone comes to tell me my 15minute old iv is out and woman is bleeding all over the place. she is hysterical. i am thinking of going hysterical. delivery gets another patient. they call me to come over. i am in the middle of way too much peri care. full flow on a new c/s. i make no fans and at least one enemy with the fundal check. plum sized clot times 2. flow is now moderate. pt tells me to get the hell out. i am glad to go...on the way out, i run into the sister of someone i attended hs with. (damn that urge to stop and use the restroom). she talks to me about her new pregnancy. i politely listen but finally get out of there. car will not start. if car does not start, car phone will not work. back into the hospital to call my husband, who is convinced i have either been abducted, had a sciatic attack or been waylaid for mandatory overtime. supervisor sees that i am still there. begs me to go back up stairs to work. i say only for tonight off. she says i'm dreaming. i say right back at ya...finally get car started and get home. children screaming. dog barking at cat. both animals have seperately managed to poop on different rugs. husband quiet trying to keep peace. now i'm awake. time for bed. love to all....and this is the start of my weekend..,...i just love being a nurse! :) night night!

I hope your next night was better?

You're probably still sleeping the whole thing off!

Heather

I think you qualify for working in the ER! Sounds as though you're pretty good at doing half a dozen things at once! Where was your nursing suprevisor, and why didn't she get those buzzards roosting in that room to go to the waiting room, or home?

I admire you for what you are doing, and putting up with. Remember, keep being nice to the newbies, and teach them how to do the exam so that you can trust their results. They are the only hope now, so you can't risk running them off.

Sounds like hubby is a great guy, but could be a little more proactive with the cat and dog...:-)

Mother/baby, honey, have a beer and go to BED. :)

Specializes in cardiac, diabetes, OB/GYN.

lol! The NEXT night I was assigned to the nursery, with 8 babies and no help. Actually, as they rely on delivery to help out and they were again wild, it was certainly a quick night for me. THEN they tell me they have a not so spiffy kid and guess who I got right at change of shift? she came around but looked like some sort of spinal problem... NEXT night I am in delivery and it was a revolving door of people in and out. Lots of labor and no delivery. I take over for the nursery nurse, who went home sick and the day people come in and tell me they can't do it with 4 people over all (even though we AND eves had done it with as many), so NO one came over to spell me to go home for at least half and hour. As for the supervisor, when it comes to maternity they have no clue. "Nothing" ever happens there, right? Thank fully, we survived the weekend. NEXT month, which will be 9 months after 9/11 should be as equally nuts...AND, we just had two OBs resign, one of which was a nurse advocate...Sigh....Night night....

Specializes in cardiac, diabetes, OB/GYN.

Hey ladies, That first night I mentioned at the start of this post was so nutty in every area that we were actually punchy and laughing the whole night through. It was busy but funny. Nothing was going right in delivery, post partum or the nursery. Our nursery has no bathroom, and more than once we post partum people for that night, were called over to help delivery so the nursery person couldn't get out to pee. Finally, she called over to delivery and begged ANYONE to bring a commode and some toilet paper over to the back unoccupied nursery so she could pee? You KNOW how those nights are? Seems to me there is often a theme of some sorts...How about you? While I was in the nursery the second night trying to deal with what the lactation consultant prefers we tell nursing moms and what actually often transpires, I was attempting to tell the lady (fresh c/s who wanted me to go call her doctor to go to the store room) who had had the c/s the night before, that she should attempt alternate breast massage to promote milk production, etc... and she actually requested I show her how to do it, so I talked her through it and she said, no, I mean, do it to me! (My husband can't understand why we hate the breast feeding issues we come up against..)

Originally posted by mother/babyRN

... and she actually requested I show her how to do it, so I talked her through it and she said, no, I mean, do it to me! (My husband can't understand why we hate the breast feeding issues we come up against..)

:rotfl: My husband used to think it was so cool that touching breasts was a regular part of my job...

I then told him about the big ol' watermelon sized boobies that you have to wrestle with to get the cheerio-sized mouth of a 34 weeker latched onto. Oh, what fun. How erotic. What a turn on. Oh baby, oh baby. :rolleyes:

And don't even get me started on the flat as a pancake boobies with the nipples the size of cherry tomatoes....MAN, I hate those!! :chuckle

Specializes in cardiac, diabetes, OB/GYN.

OH ya Shay! And, I am just SO thrilled to be at the lady partsl area of business when the membranes rupture or the particular pt in question isn't quite up to par on personal hygiene. Oh baby....lol!

Specializes in cardiac, diabetes, OB/GYN.

Hey, I was just thinking how sadly ironic it is that the only nurse advocate physician we have resigned because he can't take it anymore...Well, guess who is still there? Yep, US- the nurses...

Specializes in Adult Med-Surg, Rehab, and Ambulatory Care.

I learn more about OB nursing through you guys and gals then I ever could in school.:chuckle

Specializes in cardiac, diabetes, OB/GYN.

Well, THATs good! :)

Originally posted by maire

I learn more about OB nursing through you guys and gals then I ever could in school.:chuckle

UH OH!! :chuckle

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