I swear.....

xtxrn, ASN, RN · Dec 4, 2011

We've just been really busy and having to use a lot of registry nurses and floats from med/tele. Those nurses can't take vasoactive gtts or vents. Which results in us getting the heftier assignments.

Everyone laughs at me because they seem me start running around with all these blood request slips.
I average giving on a shift with a bleeder probably around 7 blood products, sometimes in pressure bags. My record is 14 in a shift. I don't get them EVERY shift, but I would say so far in the last two months or so I have had:
A post-hip have a hematoma twice the size of my fist....i believe 8 blood products that night.
A post-shoulder get tPA after a stroke....she was literally bleeding into her shoulder and neck right in front of me...I think 10 blood products that night. (plus CT where she went agonal, intubation, lines, etc)
My young c-section that went DIC/Septic. Hgb went from 12 to 5 in 2 hours. I know we gave 12 blood products in 2 hours, then I think I gave 2 more later.
And then last night. I get a Sepsis/OD/GI Bleed. CT trip with her pressure in the 50s, Intubation, line placement. Her NG isn't working it's clogged, so I place a new OG...I get a LITER of frank blood out in about an hour. Not to mention the dark red liquid stools shes producing every time I move her a bit. GI doc didn't think she was stable enough for surgery with the comorbidities of liver failure/renal failure added to the mix. So my job was to just try to keep her alive til they could re-eval in AM. Only 5 blood products on this one, but my orders did suck a bit, she probably should have had at least 3 more units of blood on my shift.
These are just a few of the more remarkable ones. There's others, but you get the gist.

GOOD Grief... :eek: Maybe consider dermatology ???? :hug: