Awful, awful week!!!

[flashpoint]

I work in a small, rural hospital. Our ER averages about 10 patients a day. This week we've averaged 18 patients a day and most of them were AWFUL!!!

13 year old, impregnated by her step-father delivers a 22 week gestation baby...perfect little boy and this young lady was so excited for him to be born...once the baby arrived, she was supposed to go live with relatives so her family didn't have to "suffer any shame." Sigh...

4 year old is brought in by her mother...blood all over the 4 year old's underwear...her 21 year old uncle thought he should "show her want a man does with a woman." I got to help to a rape kit on a four year old... Then I got to help scrub the wounds of the 21 year old uncle so that the med student could suture him after the little girl's father beat the **** out of him. Later that night I got to help with the exam of the 4 year old's father when he started having chest pain at the jail...and I pitched in $50 so his wife could bail him out of jail.

Then, I cried with a mom whose 5 year old daughter fell of the top of a bunk bed and hit a cement floor with her head...the mom's husband died about six months ago after he was hit in the head while a tire he was fixing exploded. The little girl got her first helicopter ride...

Coded a 38 year old MI patient, watched our PA take down punk that took a swing at a nurse (Co-Band makes great handcuffs), and helped the housekeeper suck up gallons and gallons of icky water when a pipe broke...to top it off we have a new admission clerk, a bunch of EMS students, and a PA student who thinks all patients are sincere and no one in the world has a bad bone in their body...sigh.

Am off until Monday...not sure if I'll go back. :-) I have to go back...I love my job despite all of the **** we go through.

Thanks for listening!

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

I too have to add my sympathies to the list. ER RN's really get it all, don't we? Take care of yourself.