Anybody else have days like this?

[CEN35]

i come into work an hour early for a meeting, which is ok........no biggie. as i hit the back.....more than the usual monday......rooms 1-22 filled, plus hallways, a, b, c, d, e, f, g are filled. 12 waiters in the rack...for over 4 hours. then had a preson call off, which fortunately (was the one thing that went right) i was overstaffed by one person. :) while at one time diversion meant just that, the rules by the hospital were changed.........to only diverting squads not under our med control. then it was changed to......lets not divert anybody.........if we can avoid it. nobody wants that........but seems the people making these decisions are not the ones working in the er, with their licenses on the line......and a waiting room full of people.

in the meantime........the waiters yell at me, my co-workers yell at me, patients yell at me........doctors give me a hard time, because we can't keep up......and are not on diversion.

we then get a sqaud call for an acute cholecystitis.....which someone takes in our last monitored bed......then i get a call on an abdominal evisceration with bleeding........so i switch the two patients......i mean? when is the last time somebody died from acute cholecystitis and needed a monitored bed? i catch it from that person......... then i get told this nurse sucks, that nurse sucks etc etc. nobody is happy with anybody.....and i catch it all!!!!!

somebody looses their chart and its my fault........ ct tech calls from the main department all the way on the other side of the hospital ( and we have our own ct scanner and tech in the er)......and tells us to send the pt who needs a ct of the orbits doen over there, because its their new policy! this used to be routine in the er......now we have to give someone up to take them over there........ the agency people kepe asking for a pyxis number.....and i havent been able to get there...... then a complaint on the telephone........ then more complaints from the 6 hour waiters in the wr....... and from the people who are admitted and dont have beds or rooms yet........ then the labs ordered for a women (i.e. trich, chlamydia oral and vag, and some other stuff...........that seemed to be nothing but a confusing situation...........because lab wont take them unless the right labels are on the right things......and they cant seem to be able to tell us which go to which? now for two days.......have occupied on the average 11 beds in the er with inpatients for two days, and limited room for our true er pateints......... thought i was going to stroke out!!!!!

me

[BrandyBSN]

Damn... just dont forget to breathe.

[Q.]

I haven't had quite THAT kind of day - but, I DO feel like I am going to stroke out.

On top of having a bad day at my clinic job, I then go in to the hospital for my PM into night shift - have a crappy time there as I am in charge and there is someone abrupting, and MY patient precipts in the bed. We don't have any residents anymore so we are left stranded. I then get a phone call from my husband announcing that his step-sister of 33 years old is moving in with us, along with her 5 week old infant and her 4 year old son. She is in a crappy relationship and has made BAD CHOICES all her life. Needless to say, I am FLIPPING OUT over the prospect of her moving in. Our entire lifestyle would change! Not to mention, my husband and I are going through our own problems - now is not the time to add anything else to our plate!

On top of that, I am still assisting my parents financially.

After getting home at 0200, I barely fell asleep, had nightmares all night, only to have the alarm go off at 0600 to go to my clinic job again in the AM.

[CATHYW]

My gosh, CEN and Suzy! Do you sh**, run, or go blind?

That is not at all fair, CEN! I understand the non-diversion thing. At the 3 ERs I worked at, none were allowed to divert. Some days we shuffled beds like we were shuffling cards. Is it at all possible to assign some of your more reliable nurses to a temp charge position over each area, like obs, halls, and triage, and critical care, and have them all report to you, and you assist as you can? Are you the only one with a Pixus number?

Have been there with the lab thingy-got so bad WE wound up having to draw all of our labs! The only thing I can suggest there is to stock the rooms with the types of culture/specimen containers that might be used in there (except for those that need to be refrigerated), and check them at the beginning of each shift, like the crash carts. You may want your ER Manager to get with the Lab Manager to set up a P&P about which containers are to be used for what, and stick a cheat sheet in the drawer in each room for travelers, or newbies. Then, if lab is giving you fits, whip out your P&P (NOT peepee!) and straighten them out!

Suzy, what are you tryig to do-burn both ends of your candle AND the middle? Good gracious, girl!It sure sounds like you have a plate FULL! Do you have any other brothers or sisters that can lend a hand? Does your sister work? If she doesn't, or even if she does, I'd get her into other housing, ASAP. Get her down to your county's Social Services office, and get her signed up for anything and everything, including daycare, if possible, and especially, housing. I know you've been posting on another thread about somewhat similar stuff, but crikey! That is what public programs are for-temp. assistance for folks who need it,

but not for folks to make a career of. I think you and your husband need the peace and quiet of your own home to come home to, especially when you have so many irons in the fire. Good luck, and God bless!

[plumrn, BSN, RN]

No one but another nurse knows what those days are like.I'm glad they're not all like that or there would be a much worse shortage than there already is! Hang in there!

[thisnurse]

geez now i am out of breath and i have a headache. stressed out just reading this stuff!

hope tomorrow is better :)

[spudflake]

CEN I'm ROFLMAO - This was an Unusual day for you???? At the last hospital I worked at the was the norm..we prayed for night like that:p What's extra staff??? Lucky that some one called off:rolleyes: If I had someone who called in sick I'd be down 2 nurses b/c we worked down 1 all the time. Gee, wonder why I quit and took another job:p My especially favorite nights include cops getting shot or knifed or falling off their motorcycles. Then I'd have the additional pleasure of having the WHOLE police force, the police union and half the fire dept. come in the check on the one and I do mean one injured. LOL I DO NOT miss those nights:D

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

CEN you need a hug?

Wow that was a day and a half.

I have only ONE little question. Why are you handing our Pyxis numbers? We had a "plan" in that all agency nurses had to have had OUR orientation, and thus they went to the Pyxis class and were assigned their own Pyxis numbers. They were limited to a 12 hour number though. Their agency was responsible for sending them to class and responsible if any "funny business" happened.

Now we weren't a tiny hospital, but rather the largest system in the state. Any chance this suggestion might help a tiny bit?

[Dave123]

I know this is going to sound strange to most, but to the rest......

When its coming apart and chaos is the norm..........we are at our very best.

Deep down, those times are the reason we do it.

Just my opinion

Dave

[Sundowner]

CEN35,

I was wondering what you might have had for lunch that day, you forgot to mention your lunch break........you must have had time to eat right?........lol?

I have to agee with Dave, I know I am at my very best when the s*it hits the fan.

[CC NRSE]

rick,..glad you had a better day today,...can't have you stroking out!!!!!

[CATHYW]

Yup, gotta agree with Dave and Sundowner. When you are covered up like that, you don't have time to second guess or overthink yourself-you've got to do it right the first time. Thank goodness days like that aren't the norm-most places. I think the thing that disturbed me the most was having to keep admitted people in the ER, tying up beds and personnel. No way is that fair! There was one 4th of July I was charge in our 7 bed and 1 obs ER. It was about 6:30 p, and I was beginning to get excited-we had been full all day, including 3 beds in the hall, and had serious stuff that required a lot of admits, and time-consuming stuff like suturing, that was labor-intensive for our 1 doc, thus tying up beds. I knew the evening folks would be there in 15-20 min. I got a call to go out and triage, and there was a man with an approx. 5 inch lac across the top of his head, from ear to ear. He was wearing a wet bathing suit, period. Could smell ETOH from 4 feet away-asked have you been drinking? 3 beers, he answered-wife said, has been drinking peppermint schnaaps all day-more like it. Asked what happened-dove off his houseboat, and hit a boatramp-gravel imbedded in lac-running to get c-collar and find 2 available hands to hold c-spine, wondering, where am I going to put this one? On the way, radio goes off, I have to answer, acute MI coming in-already have an admit in the room we primarily use for that, all others full. Where...came back with collar and hands, got them in place, put guy in W/C while beds being shuffled. Went to meet ambulance, saw double doors tohall open, in walked a woman, accomp. by a man, bra tied around her right lower leg. What...? We were hiking the AT, and she was bitten by a copperhead-the only thing I had to use as a tourniquet was her bra. Omigod! More shuffling beds, and praying-need more beds! Need LOTS more hands! More folks to triage. Finally, evening folks begin to appear-one sent to triage while I gave report to charge nurse, as we were doing a rundown of the everchanging board, double doors to hall open, man and woman walk through (dejavu all over again!), I say what...? They say, hiking the AT, stopped at a stream, a raccoon bit BOTH of us, several times, we think he was rabid. Stayed for an hr. to help the evening folks get a handle. By then, all of the drunks from the day were beginning to arrive with various complaints. Happy 4th!