linzjane88

Maybe with all this overtime money I can retire and move to another country and never show my face on my floor again. Ha!

Thanks for the kind words :) Yeah this had definitely reinforced both of those points for me. I don't think I've ever felt this out of sorts before. Even after sleeping so long last night I feel utterly exhausted. I won't be doing this again! It also really reinforces to me not to get complacent with our orders and protocols and just go on auto pilot doing what we've always done (or not even that in this case!). Just yesterday we discovered that our order sets call for pit to continue running at 20/hr for the duration of mag administration. It was a new grad that pointed it out to the rest of us, and sure enough, there it was tucked in the protocol. Nobody knows when that changed and she was the first to catch it....and the only one that's been doing it. Anyway, many lessons learned. And hopefully the burning embarrassment will fade soon.

(This is a long rambling vent, forgive me).So I've worked as a nurse on our LDRP floor for almost 5 years (just so we're all aware I should have known better). We are super short staffed right now because we have 3 full timers on our day shift out on FMLA so that's pretty substantial amount of shifts open. Basically almost every day of the month is available to work. I went a little crazy and signed up for tons of extra shifts because I was available and had no good reason not too. I didn't think it would be as draining as it had been, and I certainly didn't see it making me so exhausted I made stupid mistakes. Yesterday I went in for just a half shift, noon to 1800, and I truly felt like I was running on fumes. I've worked 36 hours of overtime in the last week . I picked up a postpartum mag patient who had a lady partsl delivery the night before and was due to have her mag shut off at 2000 but was otherwise stable. I also got a 2 day post op cs who had delivered a 36 weeker the night before and was feeding poorly and required much more attention. For some reason it never clicked "mag patient= not normal post partum vag delivery". I went in and did my assessment and vitals on her and baby and never did Q1 hour vitals on her the rest of the shift. On a mag patient. WHAT THE HECK? I was in there, I was doing stuff in the room, just not the vitals. You know, that important part of the care of the patient on a high alert med. So I give report and go home and get a call about an hour later wondering if I just didn't chart them because it had been 6 hours since her last bp was recorded. My mind was so toast that I was still not getting it. And then it clicked. I was immediately sick to my stomach. The charge nurse was understanding that I made a mistake and reassured me that no harm was done to the patient, they had shut the mag off by that point and her pressures were fine, but obviously she had to do an incident report. Also the physician was quite unhappy. I had seen her before I left and knew she was in a mood so I'm sure she was bad mouthing me and I'll just assume all of the staff knows by this point. Its so scary to me that I could totally miss a huge aspect of care on a patient that I so commonly take care of. I still can't figure out how it never clicked. Not only that but it's incredibly embarrassing, I feel like the unit idiot. I'm torn between being glad it was that OB that discovered the mistake (she's catty and will talk smack about anybody if she's in a bad mood....which is always) and wishing it was one of the more laid back OBs (I think I actually would feel worse if they thought I was incompetent.). I just keep replaying my day over and over in my head and can't stop. I called the charge nurse back and asked her to take me off of the upcoming extra shifts I signed up for and she agreed it was probably best. I didn't even eat dinner last night. I came home and slept for 12 hours straight. But of course woke up with that feeling of 'oh crap. That happened yesterday.' Ugh! TL;DR: did Q1 hour vitals Q6 on a post partum mag patient and now don't want to show my face at work ever again.

I work on L&D. A few years back a particularly spunky crew was working together. It was time for a delivery so the labor nurse was at the bedside , doctor at the perineum, and baby nurse standing at the counter reviewing the chart before delivery. The inner curtain was semi pulled but the door was wide open as another nurse was coming down the hallway and decided it would be funny to point her butt inside the doorway and let *just a tiny fart* in the direction of the baby nurse (because of the curtain only baby nurse had a view of the farter). Well, it wasn't a tiny fart by any stretch. Apparantley everyone paused and mentally started blaming others in the room. Dr. thought it was the baby nurse, Labor nurse thought it was the Dr, and who knows what the poor patient and her husband thought.

I don't want people to think I'm refusing to tidy up. It's frustrating because I've had this patient a few days (actually only the baby is a patient, parents are rooming in) and today my other patients were much more time consuming. I simply did not have the time to be the maid also. Then to get the stink eye from a visitor. I don't know, it just rubbed me wrong today. I guess I'm just being a whiner

I seriously do not understand the mindset of people who think nothing of throwing their garbageand dirty linens on the floor and NEVER picking anything up. Keep in mind I work on pay partum so most of our patients are up moving around along with having a support person with them. My patient will just throw bloody pads in the garbage (if your lucky), drop pad wrappers on floor, leave dirty diapers laying around, and where do sorry linens go? The floor of course! After repeated reminders from all shifts to keep things picked up so it won't be a tripping hazard along with trying to tidy up for them to no avail I just decided to not be their housekeeper today. And what do I get? A visitor who comes to the desk irritated and says all snotty "ummm, can we get somebody to clean the sink in there?". When I go in she is clearly annoyed atthe mess and is cleaning up managed work another dissatisfied look. Grrr! I do have other patients! What do you guys do?

Holy monkeys this is the most amazing thing I've ever heard...

To each their own but I really feel like when you work on L&D or PP nobody thinks it's weird to see your baby makin'parts. You literally see it every dayp. so unless there's something extra or something missing it's not even on anybody's radar. I wanted to deliver at my hospital because I know everyone. I called when my first few contractions hit to 'reserve' my labor nurse. I got more flexibility than the average patient too. I do remember jokingly saying "at my last job none of my co-workers ever saw my lady parts"

Not. Even. Close.

Save the embarrassment from asking....urban dictionary it and strut around like you know what it is they just said! Ha ha. I too was unaware of that fabulous new term.

I TOTALLY am guilty of that. Finals? Sure I'll scrub my toilets, vacuum the baseboards, ha and paint my bedroom. I have the time!

Any truly practicing Jehovah's Witness will likely have made their beliefs known at the beginning of whatever medical procedure is to be done. And, if you are still going to ask specifically "are you one of Jehovah's Witnesses?"should do just fine. Honestly, I'm sure no one will care if you say it differently. Having said that it drives me a tiny bit crazy when I hear "she's a Jehovah Witness"

That is the best thing I've ever heard. Your right, my bad. I kind of had a mini seizure silently laughing at "wizard sleeve" so I wouldn't wake husband. I love expanding my vocabulary!

I prefer "meat curtain"

Everyone knows spring is member season!