I'm in a new grad residency program in SICU...a job that I absolutely love. Second week on the floor, patient coded. We had to do CPR for 30 minutes and I was doing compressions for a good portion of that time. I'm short and the stool didn't arrive until I had been at it for a while; this guy was big. At any rate, about two days later, my upper back between my shoulder blades really started to hurt. Treated w/ibuprofen and rolling on the foam roller and seemed to improve. Now, late last week, my class was doing code drill and I did compressions again. Injury came right back. Fortunately, I was able to see chiropractor the following day but it's not improving much. I'm getting no sleep because the pain and tightness wake me up in the middle of the night. My questions:
1. Should I mention this to the nurse manager? I don't want to appear difficult, but I feel like she should be aware of this since it was an on-the-job injury.
2. I'm terrified of another code. I know that this is an occupational hazard and I've been researching proper technique for giving compressions. Should I just try to find a different role during code for the next few months until it heals (and hopefully it will.)
I know it's ridiculous to think I can work in an ICU (or any floor for that matter) if I can't do compressions. Does this mean my career is over before it even started? Any guidance would be much appreciated.