Shantony

I cant comment on NICU but most people think we sit around at night drinking coffee, eating potluck and reading. But I work in a progressive care unit which also has an isolation wing. So we are always understaffed at night and we hump constantly. Nurses fighting over how many patients they have, techs fighting that they are not taking more than 8 and you know the rest but we handle it. Next time tell who ever it is to switch to nights or try to do what you do. If they are unwilling tell them to shut up because most people in hospitals DO NOT sleep at night. We wake them up every 2-4 hours plus they are dealing with their own issues.

I had an exposure two nights ago. I was giving a patient a bed bath when the water I was washing him with (which was full of diarrhea) splashed up and got me right in the eye. He was a known AIDS patient (unbeknownst to me because he rang to be cleaned up before report and no one bothered to mention it; else I would have donned goggles) but I flushed my eye and then had to go to the ER to be seen and since he was an AIDS patient with PCP/PNA and who knows what else they started me on the antivirals. They said it was a low risk but now I have to deal with the psychological thing. Has anybody had any pyschological effects after being exposed to a patient with a non-curable disease?