i have officially had a night from h*ll. i am thoroughly exhausted, and was after only about 4 hours of my 12 hour shift. we were miserably short to begin with, so that just set the scene. oh, and i was in the feeders/growers room. :uhoh21:
all night long all i heard was monitor after monitor after monitor alarming loudly. all 12 hours of my shift. we had kids playing bradycardia bingo...."let's see who can get the lowest hr for the longest time and repeat it most often" seemed to be the theme of the night. and of course, along with the bradying came apnea, followed by o2 sats that should have been incompatable with life. and let's not forget babies pulling o2 off, ng tubes out, wailing at the top of their lungs, etc. and of course, we still have kids that are ng fed, and their pumps are constantly going off while others are trying to die/eat/both at the same time.
everybody had more babies than they should have. how can you possibly po feed 4-5 babies in one hour??? and still save the babies that are trying to die on you? what about assessments, what about ng feeds, what about anything else that might need to be done?? :angryfire and let's not even think about the charting!! ha!!! recording o2 sats and fluids q1h?? so not a priority last night. when did we get to chart??? i think it started around 0645 this morning. by the end of the shift, i think we all needed a stiff drink and an extended vacation. thank god we all work as a team to get everything done, but it is still overwhelming.
how can neonates need so much attention??? i mean, what is up with them constantly violating their monitors??? and why does it seem like if one is having a bad night, all the kids are having a bad night???
i like the nicu, but i sure will be glad to go to l&d. at least i shouldn't have more than 2 people working hard to die at a time (but i won't hold my breath on that one!) i need a therapeutic rest!!
