To start off with, I want to thank my co-workers, especially the techs who came running to help when I had really bad patients. I also want to thank my coworkers for transferring my patients to tele and ICU with me, and did so happily. I had a very, very, very bad night tonite! If you read these boards, you know who you are. If you don't then to anyone who takes the time to help the new kid, I'm eternally grateful.
It was such a bad shift -- I nearly started crying at one point, when the doc decided to put my 94 yo DNR patient on a dopamine drip and get him to the ICU. Titrated him up to 5mcg/kg/min with little success. After 2,000 cc's of NS. Can anyone say "Game over?"
I nearly quit when the psych facility refused to take my bipolar patient because there was no 'nurse to nurse' report (there it was, documented. Before my shift began. First question I asked the off-going nurse).
No time to eat (10 hours). No time to use the bathroom.
Then I had the patient from Hades who is calling for the bedpan every 30 seconds. After the fourth or fifth time, it was like, oh just mess up the chuks already :angryfire since she wasn't really doing much of anything other than making a bad situation worse. "Ma'am, what did you eat today?" 'Oh, a whopper, fries and onion rings. And a chocolate shake. Is that what is causing my tummy to hurt?' She was straining, causing a vagal response, which would drop her heart rate, then her bp, then she'd vomit for fun... "Ohhh, I'm going to be sick...quick, I need that medicine to settle my stomach."
Of course she may perhaps think that nurses are psychic beings who know what the cause of her belly pain is (but stupid isn't medically accepted yet) and can just invent a diagnosis and a medication to cure it all! Oh wait -- she screamed at the two nurses who tried to draw blood from her and she was just tickled pink when I drew from her foot. Never mind the fact that I had to page phlebotomy about nine times then get the doc and phleb-sup involved. By then I just got blood from her foot -- doesn't the phlebotomy people realize that when the ED calls/pages/begs, it's because we really mean it!
Uhhhh...where do I start?
All I can say, there isn't enough money in the world for nurses these days. Since when did ER's become drive-thru's for people's stupidity?
Tom, you are not allowed to say "welcome to the wonderful world of ER nursing". you've said that to me already.
And now I must get back to drowning my sorrows (but not my achy feet) in two Miller Lites, Taco Hell, and a great thunderstorm.
