wow...this is my JOB!

Ha ha! You are right about that!

Yeah I have thought that several diners before.

OMG, yes! Yes! I go to work thinking this. Sometimes in wonder of how awesome my job is and sometimes it's just shaking my head thinking, "really?!"

I had one of those moments not too long ago.... I had a patient who had developed a fistula at her PEG tube site, which had been recently removed. She was on a regular diet and gastric contents would leak out of the old stoma. I had medicated her with her PRN Xanax, she ate a chef salad for lunch, then I was performing the wound care to her PEG site. She was intently watching me clean up the wound, wiping away bits of partially digested food. Suddenly she exclaims "There's my Xanax!" And I'm like "no, that was a piece of cheese." Her: "Why was it pink? Cheese isn't pink." Me: "Remember you drank fruit punch?" Her: "No that was a little pink pill and I need another Xanax." So I get the piece of gauze I wiped the food away with, find the little pink bit in question, show it to her, mush it, "See? Cheese." Definitely was thinking OMG this is my job after that one.

That's part of what makes nursing and the people who do it well so unique. I had a similar thought the other day while giving a homeless man what seemed to be his first bath in months. While cleaning crud out from between his toes that would make most people gag, I had a brief moment that took me back to my religious upbringing. I'm no longer religious, but I remember while growing up my parent's church would occasionally have "foot washing" services where people would wash each other's feet as a sign of love and servitude. It almost made me a little teary eyed realizing I had this gift, this opportunity even, to serve people like this. We give to people in ways relatively few people could stomach, much less actually have the desire to do.

Nursing: finding your own religiousness in toe crud, fistulas, and gluteal folds. ha :)

I thought the same thing the day I was a leech wrangler as well as a nurse. Sometimes leeches are used to try to salvage flaps, and it is a busy day keeping track of the 3 or 4 leeches I was applying to a breast flap.

I thought the same thing the day I was a leech wrangler as well as a nurse. Sometimes leeches are used to try to salvage flaps, and it is a busy day keeping track of the 3 or 4 leeches I was applying to a breast flap.

haha, I had to do this last year for a patient with a rectal flap. It was tough trying to time your return to check on the leeches just right to catch them before they'd had their fill and started squirming off across the bed somewhere……..but at least you could track them by the trail of blood……..

good dinner conversation.

Nursing is such a multi tasking profession which most of us don't mind as long as our patients remain safe,we know our limits and the hospital policy allow us to do so.It's amazing what a nurse can do to keep the unit run smoothly.On top of being a staff or charge nurse we also assume the roles of being barbers,waitress,phlebotomist,transporter,housekeeping/environmental services,engineer,mathematician,counselor,teacher,clerk,troubleshooter and much more.That's what nursing is all about.It's gratifying,rewarding and a dignified profession knowing that we helped a lot of people and unique in it's own special way...:)

Leeches. Oh my word. I will never complain about a single thing I have to do at work again. :)

Some one's gotta be the grump, may as well be me:

15 to 20 years from now: "Someone's gotta do it, right? But why me? College degree and 20 years on the job ... here I am on Christmas Eve .... *sigh* "

Right?

I do this all the time. As I am IO cath-ing a female patient in tredelenberg position I am always thinking..."well I have to pay the rent next week"

I have done the leeches twice. I actually did them for one nurse who was newly pregnant and got that patient, and she just could not bring herself to handle them without almost vomiting. So every couple of hours I got to put one on her patient. And then yes, when they come off and escape, they do indeed leave bloody trails so you know where then went.

A couple of weeks ago I had to dilate the rectum of a baby. It was ordered Q12H. I was thinking as I was doing it, wow this is not something I ever imagined would be part of my job!