How do you do it?

I'm a student, and I find that the most rewarding part of clinicals is finding the "alertness" in those who don't seem to be A/O at all.

Today, my assigned patient was very difficult to wake, and from listening in one report, she's been like that ever since she came onto the floor. As most of you know, students have a LOT of time on their hands to devote to only one (or maybe two) patients. We aren't responsible for much of the work that the nurses do. That makes me less than confident that school will prepare me for a real job, but that's for another post, I guess...

Anyway, as I tormented this patient with my ubiquitous presence during clinical , she had her moments! I am careful to make sure my bedbaths don't expose my patients too much or that they or cold too much or too long, etc. But, yes, I had to move her around a bit, it seemed to make her uncomfortable because her eyes would occasionally pop open right after I did something, so I kept checking to make sure her limbs weren't being squeezed underneath her, etc.

As is my habit, I talked to her through it. At the end, I said, "I'm all done moving you around now, ok?" She responded in an almost unintelligible grunt, "Good." And, then she made a sound...as if she was laughing.

I helped one of my classmates give another patient a bedbath. The last name sounded familiar, and in looking around at all of the cards and pictures in her room, I realized that I did know one of her relatives quite well. She was also a patient who was considered marginally alert and oriented, but as I talked to her about the pictures and cards in her room, she looked right at me, tried to smile, tried to interact.

I spent six hours with two patients, doing nearly nothing that you would do if I actually worked there as an RN. I want to keep that part of my job when I graduate, but in my inexperience, I don't know how it's possible. While shadowing the longer-term RNs, they will tell me that the charting system is redundant. Their phones ring every 5 minutes. They are pulled in many different directions.

How do you all do it? You are sooooo busy all the damned time! How do you keep the most rewarding parts of your job actually in your job?