Did it again, saved another life...

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I did it again today, saved another life. Walked in on my patient and knew immediately they were in trouble. I heard the patient panting. Resps were at 48. Immediately did a full resp and cardio assesment to rule out CHF. Lungs clear, called RT to be on the safeside to cover all of the bases. Grabbed a sat of 85 on the pt, and then called non-teaching.

I was in the room close to 4 hours. Pushed verset and then had to figure out the code status. When I came in, DNR, then it went to full code with the family wanting to do everything. Then back to DNR with pressors and intubation.

We intubated and the pt got worse. Extubated pt got better, (sats went from 80 to 70 back to 80.) Intubated again sats down to 63, extubated and bagged, back up to 75. Intubated, and got confirmation that we were in the lungs. Dropped sats down to 65, did a pulmonary toilet, and got mucus plug gallor and sats went up to 100%!!

Got them down to the unit and afterwards the RN as well as RT's who knew I was still learning and new gave me a pat on the back and told me that I handled it like a seasoned professional. Turns out, down in the unit, they had to do a chest tube on the pt.

Wednesday's shift was the shift from you know where. One of my pts displayed the signs of CHF and caught it. I am suddenly picking up on the little things left and right. Now I feel 100% comfortable and handle just about anything that is thrown at me.

Wednesday's shift I delt with everything. From the pt who was demanding and condisending. To having to take on 8 patients, four discharges. My CHF patient. No lunch 30 minutes, one half my lunch (someone went to the coffee shop to get me a chicken wrap because I just did not have the time.)was eaten while talking with a doctor to plan the care for our patient who drove 120 miles confused into our state when their MD told them to goto the hospital 5 minutes away. Long Story. Got the adminsion assesment done at 1830, my pt came at 0715. The last time I had a shift like this, I left me in tears. This time, it left me with a smile on my face, and the best sleep in the world.

Friday's shift, probably the easiest shift I had. Nursing students from my nursing school had four of my six patients. I found out from my former instructor that her students have been requesting to pair them up with me. I not sure how to respond to that. The fact that I am tough on them (I will ask them why I am doing something the way I am, and if their instructor asks me to help them admin meds, I will ask them why it is being given. And I do get on top of them to make sure the meds are given.) doesn't seem to phase them. And if they do make a mistake, I will explain to them, away from the patient in private, their error and how to avoid it in the future. But I will not make them feel bad. Because I tell them I even make errors.

God I love my job. Can't wait for tomorrow's shift. (Let's see if I can confuse the patient who saw me in my whites yesterday, navy blue today, with my ceil blues tomorrow. She thought I was two different people. And thought that I must be a good nurse because she always saw me walking quickly.)

Adam, RN

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Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.

AWESOME ! I hope if I'm ever seriously ill that you will be my nurse!

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Specializes in Hospice, Med/Surg, ICU, ER.

Woo Hoo!

:balloons: :biggringi

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I had a big smile on my face when I read your post!

God I love my job. Can't wait for tomorrow's shift.

Wonderful!!!woohoo.gif

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Specializes in PeriOp, ICU, PICU, NICU.

Congratulations!

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I THINK IT IS GREAT THAT YOU SAVED THIS PT BUT WONDER ABOUT YOUR

TITLE "DID IT AGAIN-SAVED ANOTHER LIFE".I HAVE 'SAVED" A PT MANY TIMES AND FELT GOOD ABOUT IT BUT NEVER BOASTED ABOUT IT.:nurse:

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Specializes in Hemodialysis, Home Health.
I THINK IT IS GREAT THAT YOU SAVED THIS PT BUT WONDER ABOUT YOUR

TITLE "DID IT AGAIN-SAVED ANOTHER LIFE".I HAVE 'SAVED" A PT MANY TIMES AND FELT GOOD ABOUT IT BUT NEVER BOASTED ABOUT IT.:nurse:

That's WONDERFUL, Adam ! :balloons: :) :balloons:

How very exciting and encouraging for you. Great job, and you have every right to be proud!

Flex..Give the man a little break, he's a new nurse, still learning, and doing one heck of a job. His confidence levels are rising, he was still high on the adrenalin rush and in awe of his newly found capabilities and competence...allow him his moment of glory ! He deseved it !

This site is "family".. this is the one place he CAN and SHOULD come to "boast". Here is where we share our victories and our trials.

If we feel we've had a victory, we'd go home and "boast" and share that experience with our loved ones, our family at home.. how could we not?

This is exactly what he is doing here.. you can't keep that stuff bottled up inside, you have to let it out.

We share our Allnurses siblings victories here as well as their vents and their failures.

That's what we're all about and what makes this such an awesome site. :)

Again I say... KUDOS to you, Adam !!!

Keep up the good work, stay vigilant, keep learning, and no matter HOW darn "good" you get, if you keep your successes from going to your head and becoming overconfident, you'll be FINE. There's always more to learn, and we'll be here to encourage you and support you when you have the "down days" as well.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.
I THINK IT IS GREAT THAT YOU SAVED THIS PT BUT WONDER ABOUT YOUR

TITLE "DID IT AGAIN-SAVED ANOTHER LIFE".I HAVE 'SAVED" A PT MANY TIMES AND FELT GOOD ABOUT IT BUT NEVER BOASTED ABOUT IT.:nurse:

All caps is cyberspeak for yelling and that is rude. (You don't boast, but you yell at another poster?) This is the "first year of nursing" board, so it's not boasting in my opinion, it's sharing of experience, but you're entitled to yours and I respect that. :)

I've been a nurse for a long time and have rescued many patients over the years. It's what we do. It's always exciting, and I always talk about it and process it afterward. That's not boasting.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

Good job Adam. Thanks for sharing.

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Specializes in Telemetry/Med Surg.

Great job Adam! Must be an awesome feeling! :)

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I think it's great that you had such a positive experience! As beginning nurses we yearn for positive experiences. CHF flareups can happen at the drop of a hat. Personally, I don't think you should be 100% comfortable with everything thrown at you. That's just asking for something like a baby's head entrapped in a pelvis etc. It's wonderful that you picked up on those things! Unfortunately, the human body is so complex that eventually we all get duped by someones illness or injury.

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Wow, awesome! Wish I felt the excitment about being a new nurse that you do!!

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