When you see isolation precautions and visitor restriction notices pasted to the entrance of your facility.
When there is a LOL parked in the nurses station with a seatbelt in her wheelchair. She normally greets you with a great big smile and says "Hallooooooooooo Darling - great to see a new face, these gals are all a bunch of miseries!"
When you catch the elevator going up it is filled with interns going to your floor along with a Trauma ER pt . You hear a Code for your floor as you step out. You pick the phone up to clock in, you see the call light bell system lit up like a Christmas tree. You see only one CNA just starting Intake & Outputs and drawing Labs at 6:45 a .m. who agreed to stay over for a couple hours. The only CNA has been pulled to be a Sitter. The Charge Nurse tells you the whole staff is Agency and first time to your unit and this hospital. There is a dead body to be taken to the morgue yet, 2 patients going bad, everybody has 10 pts a piece and you have 10 empty beds on the unit. You have somebody in 5 point leather restraints, 2 in Vail Beds and you look up and see a pt in a wheelchair near the end of the hall in a posey vest scooting down by the Exit sign and no one is noticing him. You want to leave but you've clocked in already. You then realize that you changed your job status to PRN and the manager still made you Charge with all Agencies Nurses! Where is everybody?!! Ugh. (That's why I switched to school nursing 5 years ago, Yeah me!)
- You hear a Code called as you walk into the hospital, a Code called during report, and a Code called as you're walking out of report (this = about an hour's time span!)
- You've been at work 30 minutes and already seen the House Supervisor go into 3 different rooms
- In report you find out that one patient needs 4 units of PRBCs, one patient needs 2 units of platelets and 2 units of PRBCs, and two patients will be receiving chemo... And they're all your patients!
- You have 4 patients on respiratory or neutropenic isolation..Because you know those are the rooms you have to go in the most
Specializes in Pediatric, LTC , Alzheimers, Behavioral.
You start walking down the halls and notice that every resident that has a bad case of sundowners are all up at 11 at noc. They are in the hallway trying their best to either hurt everything/everyone around them, or they have decided that they have been dressed long enough and are bound and determined to stay naked.
The offgoing nurse is standing at the desk with her purse and coat next to her, saying "Good Luck, reports written down for you" as she grabs her stuff and is gone in 2 sec.
When every staff member you see says "Thank God you're here" as you are heading to the desk.
Here's a new one for me: when you arrive on the unit for the extra shift you've been called in for the supervisor hands you a paper bag. It contains an energy drink and a chocolate bar - look out!
StNeotser, ASN, RN
963 Posts
When you see isolation precautions and visitor restriction notices pasted to the entrance of your facility.
When there is a LOL parked in the nurses station with a seatbelt in her wheelchair. She normally greets you with a great big smile and says "Hallooooooooooo Darling - great to see a new face, these gals are all a bunch of miseries!"