girl in greenwood

I woke up late today. Really late. The clock said 6:22. My carpool buddy was supposed to pick me up 2 blocks away at 6:25. I threw on my scrubs, grabbed my keys & my badge, and literally ran the whole way. We made it to work on time.

Where I had 5 patients in the course of my shift, one of whom spoke only Spanish. And was going home. And needed teaching about his new colostomy. My Spanish is really not up to the task.

Then my night-shift coworkers didn't come get report from me until 15 minutes after I was supposed to be gone.

Now I'm going to sleep the sleep of the dead. And luxuriate in my four days off.

Labels: nursing

Today was my first day on the floor where I was actually hired to work. I had just finished 3 shifts on the unit where I was training... I had such a good experience there that I thought I would be sad to move on. But I had a surprisingly good day, and I feel surprisingly happy about being in this new place. After just one day I already have ideas about how to make things run more smoothly. And best of all, I did not feel like the "new kid". I knew 2 of the nurses on the floor with me, both of the unit secretaries, and one of the aides. And then my classmates E* and O* showed up at shift change and it was truly lovely to see them both. E* and I are sharing a locker in the staff room now, where we will keep a stash of cinnamon Altoids which my husband hates. I don't know if E*'s wife likes them or not.

I also learned today what happens when we call for a show of force from the security department: a whole lot of people RUN onto the unit and scare the crap out of whoever is causing trouble. That was awesome. (Incidentally, the trouble-causers were the friends(?) and family of the patient. The patient himself was way too out of it to be troublesome.)

At least so far, I'm feeling like my preceptorship on the trauma unit prepared me extremely well, and I am going to be just fine. That is a good feeling.

Now I am about to enjoy two days off, followed by a couple of short shifts, and then a weekend with my parents. Life is good.

Labels: nursing

I've been working and not blogging. But I appreciate the visits & comments from readers! So here are my replies to some of you, because I have been a terrible e-mailer lately.

UnsinkableMB -
Thanks for the thoughts on shoes, orthotics, and achey hips. I've been trying out different shoes in my closet and haven't found the perfect thing yet - but I'll keep looking. And I think I'll investigate orthotics, especially if my insurance will pay for them!

ThirdDegreeNurse - it's so nice to hear from you! I hope you're doing well in your nurse career, too. I'd love to get an update from you if you feel so inspired.

Emilie - Yes, nurses have to eat either in starving bear mode or in fluttering bird mode. One shovels without perceptible chewing or swallowing, the other zooms through the breakroom and swoops up a few bites of whatever potluck dishes are still left and repeats this move several times throughout the day.

Also thanks for the nice words about my "good" things. I am having trouble remembering the good things when I have a hard day.

Heather - Sorry for the shivers. I will keep posting my helpful tips as they occur to me, but I'll try to keep them tasteful enough for non-nurse reading. :)

Kim - Thanks for my move to the big leagues! And I love the idea that I was giving birth to a career. Hee.

Anonymous Shoreline RN program applier - You absolutely DO need to make sure that your transcript gets to the nursing department, but it doesn't have to be an official copy. Stop by the front office in the nursing building - the secretary for the nursing dept can help you make sure your paperwork is in order. And, at 115 points you should be a shoo-in to get accepted! I've heard that the required number of points is back down near 100 points now. Good luck!

Caroline - Thanks for the compliment! And hey, I know I haven't been commenting on your blog, but it sounds like you are rocking the house. Good for you!

CyNurse - Thanks! And the weight loss continues but slowly. I am down 18 pounds at this point, but I still can't fit into my favorite jeans. Not quite.

GeekRN - Hi there compadre! Nice to hear from a fellow Shoreline grad. Especially since you're still working as a nurse, which means that in several more months I will most likely still be functioning, also. :) So you're Mr. Meow Note?? When I started the program in spring 2006 the management students were passing out CDs of them to everyone. By the time I graduated, that practice had pretty much fallen out of favor. I don't think it was because of the administration, though - I think it had more to do with the fact that the curriculum has changed over time and the notes didn't match up to the lectures as well anymore.


So. I have just a few more days of orientation. And my first day on the new unit is Monday. In a cheery note, I already know that I will be giving report Monday evening to my classmate E*, who is well on the way to being my new work-spouse, after being my clinical boyfriend during last quarter. Yes, I'm being a little facetious, just to annoy my husband.

I'm surprised to find that I'm starting to feel ready to be on my own at work. I'm sure I will still need help, and that I won't be all that happy with my performance on a regular basis, but I seem to have gotten past the pants-wetting terror of my first few weeks at the hospital.

Labels: nursing

Good things that have happened at work:

I noticed when one of my patients had early signs of bleeding internally (increased heart rate, low blood pressure...) and got my preceptor involved right away and we ended up calling a rapid response, which culminated with the attending physician coming into the room, taking one look at the patient, and saying something to the effect of "I'll see you in the operating room in 15 minutes". My preceptor congratulated me aftewards, saying I made a good catch.

I freely confess that the only reason I knew what was going on and that I needed to react quickly was because a former coworker told me about a nurse who got fired because they missed the early signs of a patient bleeding internally after surgery, and the patient died. When I heard the story, I promised myself that would not happen when I was a nurse. I had lunch with my former coworker last week and told her about my "good catch" and she was so proud of me. :)

I've been handling three patients relatively independently for a couple of weeks.

Yesterday, a patient who used to be a nurse told me that she appreciated having me as her nurse because every time I came in the room, she and her family felt calmer and more in control. That was super nice to hear, especially considering that she used to be on the other side of the bed, as it were.

I'm down 15.5 pounds since NCLEX. I credit long days of work in addition to dieting.

Bad things that have happened at work:

I've gotten to the end of my shift with little charting done and have had to stay late on more than one occasion.

I cared for a new paraplegic who was so positive and so in denial and he told me "I'm going to work hard and walk again!" and I actually started to tear up, it was so sad. Ouch.

I just worked 4 days in a row and I am tuckered out.

Weird things that have happened at work:

I took care of a person who was in the trouble with the law and was guarded by a series of police officers. One of whom tried to hit on me. That hasn't happened before.

Head-injured patient who is very confused and yells all the time saying to me "I HOPE YOU DON'T THINK I'M A F***ING PUSSY!" after asking me for pain meds. Heh. No, buddy. You've got broken bones, not a lack of courage.



So there you go. Little snapshot of what I've been doing. I'm still orienting through the 3rd week of August, then I will apparently be joining up with my future colleagues on the new unit.

Labels: nursing

# posted by girl_in_greenwood @ 8:15 PM 4 comments links to this post

Since Meeegan asked - I am working tomorrow (Saturday) for 12 hours. I'm off on Sunday, though!

I forgot one thing on my list of stuff I've learned so far - working as a nurse is excellent for dieting if you can avoid the junk food in the staff lounge. I barely have time to sit and eat my lunch - and I'm not even up to a full patient load yet. Also, I'm down 10 pounds since taking the NCLEX. Just 20 more to go to get back to my pre-nursing school weight. It's like I was pregnant for two years, or something.

Tomorrow I'll be moved up to taking two patients. I handled one today pretty much independently and it went well. So I hope I don't have a meltdown with two tomorrow!

Labels: nursing

I've worked on the floor at BCH for 5 shifts and here are a few things I've learned so far:

1) There is a device for cleaning out gnarly wounds called a waterpick. I did not know such a thing even existed before last week.

2) Fentanyl lollipops (excuse me, transmucosal delivery systems) don't look like lollipops at all. They look like an instrument that is the perfect size to shove into a nostril, actually.

3) If you are a morbidly obese diabetic man, you may want to look into personal hygiene, before you develop an infection where the sun doesn't shine. Holy crap, I've never seen wounds like that before.

4) Apparently having a rectal tube (excuse me, fecal continence management system) installed feels like "having a Ho-Ho shoved up [your] butt". Or so my patient informed me.

5) If you inject heroin into your subclavian veins, Very Bad Things can happen. If that's not quite enough information for you, google necrotizing fasciitis. See? Very bad.

6) Working 2 12-hour shifts on consecutive days makes my hips ache by the end of the second day. But with support socks at least my feet don't hurt.

7) I really need to work on my time-management skills.

8) I probably need to make myself a more structured brain sheet/to-do list if I'm going to not forget stuff.

Labels: nursing

Hello Internet, I have not visited with you in quite a while!

My biggest news is that I started my new job as an RN at Big County Hospital (BCH from here on out). I had 5 8-hour days of classroom orientation the first week, which was shockingly exhausting. My brain felt swollen from acquiring so much information at such a rapid pace. The next week I had an all-day computer training which was excruciating - then I started out on the floor with my preceptor.

This is a little confusing to explain, but I am not training on the unit where I will eventually be working. I was pretty upset about that when I found out, but after I met my preceptor and got started, I was no longer upset. My preceptor is AWESOME. She's been a nurse for a long time, she's smart and funny and encouraging and kind - exactly the kind of nurse I aspire to be. She's been giving me both positive feedback and constructive criticism, which I really appreciate.

So working at BCH is pretty different from working at the Nonprofit Community Hospital. I have seen some shocking, shocking wounds, and I've only been at work for 4 days. Happily I turned out to be interested in gnarly wounds, and not the kind of person who passes out at the sight.

Okay. Another 12 hour shift tomorrow, so off to bed with me.