How was your Friday the 13th!

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Jul 14, 2012

Well, I had 3 different assignments before noon. We started out tight then had a no-show - but wait... she wasn't really a no-show, she'd called in the evening before to cancel her OT shift and the CN who took the call "forgot" to put a note on the assignment sheet. I was told to take report on her intended patient while they decided what to do... Lemme see - how about I just keep the patient? At any rate, the first case (my original patient) was put on hold and an inpatient took that kid's place. Then there was an uproar because that kid wasn't supposed to have gone until tomorrow and now the nurse assigned "wasn't qualified" to readmit. So she and I swapped assignments when the OR called with report. I'd already done everything that needed doing for transferring the kid to the ward except rolling him out the door. The kid comes from the OR and they hadn't actually gone on bypass so she could have totally taken the admission. It's all such a political football and it's ridiculous.

We didn't have any decans, but did have one ECPR overnight. One unplanned extubation today. No management in house. "First" case came RIGHT at change-of-shift. Can't say that it's totally Friday the 13th's fault though because a lot of our days are like this.

meanmaryjean, DNP, RN · Jul 14, 2012

I had nightmares about the current two child abuse cases in our PICU.

But I was orienting a new nurse - who has more PICU experience than I do - even though I'm old enough to be her mother! So I gave a practice presentation of my upcoming Lunch and Learn to the assembled hostages / audience in the nurses' station about 0300. The topic?

Adapting to Circadian Disruption: Bringing Best Practices to Night Shift Workers.

They loved it, and gave me some GREAT ideas to further research.

umcRN, BSN, RN · Jul 15, 2012

Well, I had 3 different assignments before noon. We started out tight then had a no-show - but wait... she wasn't really a no-show, she'd called in the evening before to cancel her OT shift and the CN who took the call "forgot" to put a note on the assignment sheet. I was told to take report on her intended patient while they decided what to do... Lemme see - how about I just keep the patient? At any rate, the first case (my original patient) was put on hold and an inpatient took that kid's place. Then there was an uproar because that kid wasn't supposed to have gone until tomorrow and now the nurse assigned "wasn't qualified" to readmit. So she and I swapped assignments when the OR called with report. I'd already done everything that needed doing for transferring the kid to the ward except rolling him out the door. The kid comes from the OR and they hadn't actually gone on bypass so she could have totally taken the admission. It's all such a political football and it's ridiculous.
We didn't have any decans, but did have one ECPR overnight. One unplanned extubation today. No management in house. "First" case came RIGHT at change-of-shift. Can't say that it's totally Friday the 13th's fault though because a lot of our days are like this.

haha true, it doesn't always have to be Friday the 13th to have a nutso shift!

Ahh don't get me started on the political football either! I remember my very first rapid deploy in the CICU. After all was said and done the charge nurse almost changed my assignment because I hadn't had a patient on ECMO in the CI yet (since orientation, and NICU ecmo doesn't count apparently). Well how the heck was I supposed to get experience? Geez. In the end I got to keep the kiddo.

Double-Helix, BSN, RN · Jul 15, 2012

We were unbelievably calm. Our census has been quite low. I was very surprised.