A day in the life ....

[KDSkyy44]

Hello ...

Recently I had read a story on here of doctor who walked into the room placed a tube and performed about 5 tasks then went on to see other patients. The nurse then described her job/tasks during the few minutes the doctor was in and the following 11 hours of her shift (I believe it was a NICU or PICU patient). I loved the story but it has never resurfaced through arduous searching.

She was able to represent nursing through a different light than some typical stereotypes of their sole responsibilities. She detailed every little thing including blood draws, arterial

lines(something pertaining to), positioning tubes, passing NG Tubes, etc etc She described the side of nursing that seems never gets enough attention as too many focus and get hung up on the role of a nurse as ADLs and passing meds and not honoring all that goes behind that and beyond that.

I recent landed PCT jobs in the ED and Peds and am new to the nursing role in acute care settings (and any other personnel as well).

If anyone has a story to share of everything they do/have done for a patient, a sort of "day in the life of an (RN or _fill in the blank_) on _fill in the blank_ unit", I would love to read it!

I think I've read enough "tell me the grossest" and would love to read more "tell me a time when you super woman or a hero"

Brag a little.... You all deserve to.

[Tait, MSN, RN]

Long story short? I was helping another nurse with a young patient who had come in after fainting. She had previously had a lap chole on an outpatient basis. I thought she looked pale and her blood counts were very low. We were transfusing her. I found out she had not yet had a CT of the abdomen done. I told her mom, while I was helping to do VSS for the blood, to keep asking until her daughter got a CT. Found out a few hours later they had nicked a blood vessel during the lap and she was slowly bleeding into her abdomen.

It is often hard to advocate for a patient who isn't yours, but in the end everyone involved was grateful we had asked for the CT when we did.

Tait