11/10/11 Interesting stuff from last night

11/10/11

*Cared for a guy with vaso-Vagal response to coughing, beat up from his fall. 

  So that means he has syncope (passes out) every time he coughs. He finally came to the hospital after he did it 3 times in one day and did a face plant into a coffee table. By the time I'd done my three shifts, he was still there, and no one knew anything more about WHY.  

*Mini emergency : woman in  pain, shaking all over, with an O2 sat in the 30s before we put oxygen on her.  Then 70s and 80s. I was the first to intervene and I did a good job of directing everyone.

*Talked to a doc without sounding stupid, requesting pain medication for one of my patients. 

Grandma went into the hospital yesterday with pneumonia.  Not doing so great today.  Family denied giving her blood transfusions when found out that she had a low 'crit. Guess she's on her way out.

Must be the change in the weather; dropped 40 degrees. We had 3 code blues at the hospital in 1.5 hrs this am, from 4:30-6.  Pretty bad. 

*IV start successful after 2 colleagues failed. 

I just had a flashback to1 year ago in nursing school.  I told my friend who was already an LPN that *I* want to be the person that people come to when they have a hard stick that they cannot get.  In the last two weeks, it has started to happen. * grin of extreme satisfaction

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90 days in

11/04/11

It really has been too long since I last wrote about being a nurse.
I'm not sure I've ever really written about being a nurse, now that I
think about it, at least in the real world. As a non-student. And I
just had my 90 day celebration luncheon day before last. It's a thank
you dinner and feedback session with the leadership of Saint Big Dog
hospital that I now work for.

I've gone through my preceptorship already, given nitro pills to acute
chest pain, hung nitro and heparin and cardizem, &came THISCLOSE to
calling a Rapid Response on a patient. I already have patients that
I'll never forget.

Oh yeah, & my dad had a heart attack, had to be defibrillated to be
"brought back," & open heart surgery. CABG x3 or coronary artery
bypass graft...or triple bypass to all my nonmedical readers. That
was a hell for a way to get a lot of first hand experience as a
Cardiac Nurse, I assure you. (he's recovering very well, btw.)

Some of the most outstanding patient stories, good and bad, will be
mashed up, obscured, and details changed so I can retell them here in
this blog.

I just got off my first shift as Charge. Whoa. Oh yeah, AND I work nights now.

I'm holding my own, ya know? *proud. I'm getting good feedback from my
patients (sometimes from my patients to my managers!) almost daily.

I'm gonna try my hardest to live up to that.

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