Every room is full, you empty one room and two patients come in..you know the kind of day...then, a doc calls and tells you that he has a patient that's scheduled for a c-section in three days but she's in labor now...and here's where the real fun begins.
This "laboring" patient (with contractions every 20 min and a thick, closed cervix) arrives with her entire extended family. I ask them to step out while I admit the patient and prepare her for her c-section. A few of them leave but then trickle back in within a few seconds. I ask the patient who her support person will be in the OR-since it's not obvious from the numerous people in the room. She begins naming off people and I stop her at five (she has eight people in the room and so far she's been pointing them out in a clockwise manner) and tell her that for safety and infection control reasons (if not pure lack of space) she can only take one person into the OR with her. She and the entire family now jumps all over me because "the doctor said we can take whoever we want in." I have to politely explain to them that the doctor does not have any say over visitors in the OR-it's a hosptial issue. The CRNA comes in and agrees to allow two people in. Now the entire family is fighting over who will be the second person (would have been easier to limit it to one.) Now, the mother comes out and informs me that she and the husband will be going in, but "we will need a nurse to film it because Aunt Betty was going to but now you won't let her in." I tell her that the nurses in the room have duties related to the surgery that they must fulfill and that they are welcome to take a video camera in but they will have to video tape it. She then says that there is no way they can film because they want to watch so we need an extra nurse to come in. I explain to her that we are very busy today and do not have an extra nurse to go in and again tell her that she is welcome to film it.
OK so they finally go back and we have to virtually physically restrain the family members who continually attempt to "wander" into the OR and refuse to wait in the waiting room-they must be in the hall the entire time.
This whole time I am also the charge nurse and have another labor patient. Every nurse on the floor has a huge patient load. We run around all day long.
So, a half hour before the end of my shift I finally have time to sit down and chart and one of the babies will not stop crying and mom is trying to take a nap and refuses to have the (breastfeeding) baby returned to her room. I am able to soothe the baby a little by holding her. So, I am holding a baby and charting and a visitor walks by and says "what a great job you have, you just get to sit around and hold babies all day.":banghead:
She is LUCKY I didn't rip her face off!!!
OK, go ahead and vent here-we all need it now and then!
