When Ob Means O-boy, What A Night

[cokie]

last night was way way too busy. guess there was a special on c sections, because i had a pair that were 18 hours out, a fresh, with baby (nursery couldn't keep the baby) team led a discharge, c section one day out, and another fresh (no ward clerk, we do orders and all).....thank goodness everyone was stable, but i almost feel asleep on the way home......glad it's close......thanks for letting me vent....my team was supposed to get another fresh c section, i took report, found a dynamap, pump, pole, helped recovery get her into bed, took vitals, checked fundus, pad, (everyone else was at dinner, my lvn had picked up dinner for everyone, including the charge, so she was technically off the floor for an hour), then i went into the break room to tell my lvn something about where we were on the vitals, and she threw a major fit, thought she was going to go onto the floor and kick and scream.....the other lvn offered to take it. bless her heart....what a night...45 minutes of overtime to catch up on our charts...thanks again for letting me vent...nothing much to do and like my husband said "i survived"........wow......

[SmilingBluEyes]

((((((((cokie)))))))) you are not alone. I can safely say we all have had nights like this on OB. Hang in there, put your feet up and have a cold "one"...whatever your choice is. Take care now!

[cokie]

thanks for the kind words. people at my med-surg job tease me and tell me that i went to post partum to sit around and read magazines. i just smile at them when they talk like that, because i know that they just don't know what they are talking about. it IS better on ob than ms, but that is simply because i enjoy it so much more, not because the work itself is any easier. take care and have a great week.......

[mark_LD_RN]

every one gets those nights. I worked at a hospital last yr that left with 11 pp patients 3 of them sections plus, I had an lpn that was not IV certified and little peds experience taking care of 5 peds patients 3 with RSV. no tech no help. I was lead RN for the night. and had to prep 2 patients at 6 am that came in for out patient procedures and have them ready by 7 am.:)

after that hell of a night was over i went home drank a few, took my BP meds and went to sleep.learned to let it go so i could live to fight another day:)

[cokie]

mark, please tell me that you were in charge (is that what lead means in miss), and not totally responsible for all the pt. that you mentioned. what a nightmare. also, not to sound naggy, but drinking and bp meds???????

[mother/babyRN, RN]

Sometimes you just have to look at each other, take a deep breath and say lets go get um...I have had occasion in the past when it was wild when a doc started yelling because her patient wasn't in one of the two still dirty birthing rooms. We had no housekeeping overnight and were doing our cleaning also, along with at least 3 deliveries, a couple in labor and a recovering section....She condescendingly asked me what she could do to facilitate what she wanted, so I handed her the cleaning stuff I was holding, gave her a rag and told her the quickest way to get her patient into a birthing room was to help clean it...She gave me dagger stares but went in and did it..She learned a lot that night..She didn't like it much, but she never treated me that way again...In fact, she was the first doc to complain that the nurses were way too overburdened and it was a misjustice to the patients that we had so much to do with so little resources. It didn't help with staffing but it did do a lot for morale.....She never cleaned a room again, however....