This week has felt painfully long. And here it is: the end. Just in time for the new one to begin already. I'm so not ready for a new week to begin, especially if it's going to be more of the same.
In my world, I've learned....
How fast a 31 year old being treated over the last year for skin cancer can go from okay, to gone.
How utterly heartbreaking it is to watch her husband fall to pieces.
How the very first RR code I ever witnessed, EVER, is doing now. It was during my internship in school. After a narcan bolus woke her up, a narcan drip didn't KEEP her awake (or breathing for that matter). It's been years since that day, and I imagine she thinks we're idiots with tiny fish brains. Her "allergy" to narcan with the response "heart stops" really isn't convincing.
On further reflection, if you ever want to stop someone from giving you narcan, tell them it will stop your heart - the one thing worse than the overdose it is supposed to be stopping.
I can't decide which hospitalist is worse: the one who totally ignores nurses (leading to malpractice suit-worthy near misses), or the one who thinks nurses are secretaries and puts pointless testing and orders in, and schedules things at times that make absolutely no sense. This one is a fan of q3h vitals (floor protocol is 4, so we thankfully can override that), q8h orthostatics (usually they're q12h), q4h fingersticks on NPO after midnight NONDIABETIC patients... The list goes on. Both these people need to go. Apparently people can't be terminated for simply sucking at their job.
It is so, so sad to watch a sweet, elderly, a&o, dignified, former doctor become humiliated by his sudden rush of diarrhea, which he did not make it to the toilet to pass. It was kind of beautiful, though, seeing his recognition and deepening respect for all that nurses do. I don't think that he knew. With one doctor ignoring us, one treating us like secretaries, and this guy, I truly wish we could take time with each physician (especially on a hard day) to show them what we do, and share with them what we know, what we see, support and experience in any given shift.
Kidneys suck. Especially when contrast literally kills them.
I strained stone fragments out of urine that looked like poppy seeds and sesame seeds. Totally got an everything bagel on the way home. Toasted. Cream cheese. YUM!!!
Ages ago I started a thread asking for advice regarding good scrubs for a short, tiny person with a big booty. It's probably been a good year since I asked, but I've finally found my answer! Butter Soft Stretch 8-pocket pants (in petite sizes) and 5-pocket v-neck shirt.
I've decided to hop on a project, choosing frequently seen chronic and acute conditions to gather EBP on for the unit committee I'm on. And suddenly, I'm back on the books and research article libraries like they're crack and I'm hooked.
The recent dynamics change that we are experiencing on night shift are so not good. We've had a rather dramatic drop in the last quarter's satisfaction scores, and as we went through respondent comments, it was pretty clear that a core group of night shifters are likely the cause of the drop.
There are some nights when I feel like I'm the only one chasing down the noisy pumps to make them stop beeping and bed alarms when the ninjas come out of the LOLs. They'll all be online, looking up stuff to buy, while I'm all go-go-go all night. Then, shift change comes, and they're all waiting to clock out and leave. I'm still charting and wrapping up my shift.
Caring for a patient with a horrible looking skin wound might make you slightly freaked out when you get a red spot on your nose that begins to breakdown like 3 days later, then takes days to show progress of healing.
I was really hoping I would have learned the result of my biopsy by now. I have kept this mostly to myself, because of the passing of the wife mentioned at the top of this list. It hasn't helped, though, to feel the sadness and horror of her sudden loss of life due to skin cancer. Just please let this be negative.
This week, the drug of choice appears to be heroin. And hookers. And drunken brawls in the ED.
Deciding to always stay up all night was the best decision I could have made. It's amazing how much more productive I am on my days off when I'm not all jacked up trying to sleep.
I have a person in my life who is constantly looking for things to be angry about. Seek and ye shall find. Not only is this utterly exhausting, but it's incredibly frustrating.
So, yeah, long and complicated week. And I'm way behind on this place. Share with me what I should have learned!!! And, of course, I'd love to know - what have you learned this week?
Eta: I didn't add a video!
What the heck ISSSS this?
