Night Nurse III: Slip-Slidin' Awaaaaaaay

**VivaLasViejas**, ASN, RN

Actually, this tale begins in the early evening: a time of day when hospital life starts to wind down and all the doctors, therapists, families, and administrators head for the exits. It was a time of day when we could usually take a short break before the HS festivities ensued, with the typical flurry of toileting, meds, and wound treatments. Unfortunately for us night nurses, it was also the time of day when our environmental services department went into high gear and shampooed the hall carpets......and on at least this one occasion, created an opportunity to show patients and co-workers alike what a klutz I am.

It wasn't the actual shampooing of the carpet that was the problem, although the noise from the shampooer was annoying and the cleaning solution had a habit of going straight to my airways, causing them to clamp down in a most irritating fashion and forcing me to use my albuterol inhaler far more often than I would have liked. No, the problem lay just inside the patient rooms, where the flooring was cold linoleum. Cold, hard linoleum. Cold, hard, slippery linoleum. Even though the cleaning crew put towels down in the doorway of each room, it was all too easy to step on them with one foot when you were in a hurry and then go flying.

This particular night, I had a busy group of patients, but since I had only four to start with, I was naturally first in line to take the next admit. Sure enough, the ER called just as I was doing my 2100 meds and treatments, so off I went to prep the window bed in room 218. Getting an admit was never a simple process at our facility; you had to fetch IV pumps from one storage room, telemetry equipment from another, and water pitchers and other personal-care items from still another. So by the time you had everything ready, the patient was usually already up on the floor and the ER nurse waiting impatiently to give a report.

The final piece of equipment I needed for the new patient was the admit packet, and I went to the nurses' station to get it. A stretcher was coming down the hall---of course, it was my admission, arriving fifteen minutes earlier than I expected. Surprise, surprise.

That was when I forgot about the wet carpet and dashed into the room, missing the towel completely........and suddenly I was sailing across the floor! My arms shot up, scattering eight pages of paperwork like confetti, and before I could catch myself I slammed into the bedside table with a thud and fell flat on my face. SPLAT.

That's how the ER nurse, the orderly, and my new patient found me. For a moment all three of them stared at me, blinking owlishly, then Kathy, the nurse, asked me if I was hurt. "Only my pride," I said, hoping it was true---I hadn't had time to assess my injuries---and scrambling to my feet in the vain hope of salvaging some dignity. "All I did was---"

Just then my feet shot out from under me AGAIN and I flipped into the wetness for the second time, landing hard on my backside.

The patient looked down at me from the stretcher and quipped, "Gee, honey, you could've just told us."

Night Nurse III: Slip-Slidin' Awaaaaaaay

About VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN

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