You are doing gods work... semi rant, wondering what its like for the rest of you

Specialties MICU

Published

So I was out the other night with my girlfreind who is charge nurse at boston medical center on a surgical floor. I work in an icu, I have been here for almost 2 years.

Discussion comes up about work and someone listens in on us and says to me.. you work in the icu? you do gods work.

I cant say this is true unfortunatly. I feel like I am stopping god from allowing the death with dignity part to happen. I dont know what its like for the rest of you, but I find a lot of chronic cases. These patients come in that are like 85, long histories, and you know that if they really had a choice in the matter they would rather die with dignity,... but instead end up trach, peg, with a picc, and just keep coming back untill they code for the 3rd time in 2 days and finally its stopped after being maxed out on 3 pressors and they code again. (I saw this happen once.) I often ask myself why?

I look at it like this... that I have learned a lot keeping patients alive that should not be and have been able to apply that to patients who are acutly ill and turn them around.. but I think this is like 1 out of every 50 patients Ive seen, and its a bit much. IT seems like sometimes our purpose is to just see how far we can keep people alive no matter what the concept of life is.

Also after I got over the initial... holy **** a vent, and wow 10 iv lines at once, and how pressors work, Im finding a lot of routine to this job. Yes often we are busy as hell, but the other half the time its... enter the vitals every hour, document document document until your fingers hurt. Draw the blood, reposition, do the bedbath, do the suction.

I like being an icu nurse. I was a nurse for 7 years before. Tele, medsurg, agency, and as soon as I started my first day of orientation in the icu, it was a humbling experience. It was like starting nursing school all over again where I knew nothing, where I used to be one of the strong nurses on the floor. Ive learned so much more than I ever thought...

But I will be honest, this job is not what I thought it would be.

Specializes in CVICU, CCU, Heart Transplant.
I remember one shift I prayed the entire time that my frail, 80lb alert oriented lady would not code so I didn't have to break her ribs. Chronic COPD, failure to thrive, chronic issues, etc and only 60-70 years old... I could see every single bone and tendon in her body. I double checked with her that day that she wanted FULL CODE-YUP, that's what she wanted!

Oh gosh, this is me! This happens all the time, most commonly when patient's family's can't let go --- I pray my whole shift that my frail, 80 or 90 year old won't code so I don't have to break her ribs!

I appreciate this thread. I've been bothered by all of this in my short career so far. A lot of the things y'all are discussing has effected me very deeply. I guess it's cathartic to read everyone's thoughts.

This is a good conversation to have. As it rolls along, might need to be a "sticky" Miranda. ;)

I finished a great book recently called "No Good Deed" by Lewis M. Cohen, M.D.

It is about two nurses who are accused of murdering a patient because of withholding life supporting measures that were in accordance with the patient's wishes.

The author looks at the entire debate in America about end-of-life issues. He does it in a fair way, telling all sides of the story including the CNA who accuses the nurses of murder.

One of my favorite doctors, Ira Byock, states in the Forward "No Good Deed" shines a much-needed light on the cultural chasm that divides Americans on subjects of ethics, dying, and intensive care. Lewis Cohen has issued a wake-up call to society to openly discuss how we care for people at the end of life. We avoid this call at our peril."

The only issue I would quibble with him about is he links the people who don't believe in removing feeding tubes from disabled people who are not terminally ill with those who think we should code that frail 80 pound woman mentioned in this thread.

But the book is overall very fair and well researched and a "page turner".

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