Poop du Jour

We’ve had more drama and insanity on the floor. Finally on Monday one of the administrators came around the floor , thanking us for hanging in there and promising he was going to get us some help. We have had some of the busiest days ever, and we need more staff. I had two patients all by myself one day while the charge nurse was my preceptor, but I never asked her more than 2 questions all day. I did it all myself. They were lucky they had me there, except they shouldn’t be doing that.

I was supposed to have a short day on Saturday, but I ended up taking patients and staying for the whole shift, and then Sunday it was a zoo again and I had two patients by myself. We had 4 admits within an hour. By Monday I had just one patient but he was a handful, we extubated him and I pulled his NG tube and then he was moaning and talking the whole time and wanting food. And he was getting lactulose so he was pooping, a literal shitstorm. One of our aides helped me four times to clean up shit. Twice it was so bad we had to change all the linens and his gown, shit was everywhere on the bed. Even on the siderails.

We had drama, a husband almost passed out, and he was big guy. He was a drama queen himself. And then we had this idiot patient who was admitted for stupidity, I can’t say what it was but it deserves a Darwin award- for purposely allowing yourself to have an allergic reaction. And this is a repeat visit to the ICU.

I had work dreams the second night, something about running to the blood bank to get 6 units of blood, and then having to come back and mop the floor, and union people being around trying to get nurses to join!

The night staff was short and we had daylight savings time so everyone was extra tired from one less hour of sleep, and then the second night since we were shorted a staff member, two day people ended up staying for 16 hours and they still didn’t have anyone to take my two patients. So I didn’t get out of there until the charge nurse figured out how he could cover those two. I got home late and had to come back for my third day. I was toast and now I have big ass cold sore on my lip, dammit.

I have two off and then I go back for one, and then I get 4 off. And next week I get a nice break from patient care for classes.

I felt good about my weekend, I was able to get through almost the whole thing without missing orders, screwing anything up, or even needing to ask too many questions. And I had the courage to track down the doctors even when they looked busy. Some of them are talking to me like I’m the nurse now.

I know I’m not ready but I don’t think you ever are. I need more practice, it’s all repetition. I need to check myself whenever I do something new and keep checking on medications, making med errors is my big fear. I’m supposed to have one more month of orientation. I feel like at this point I’m not getting much out of my preceptors, so why be on orientation any more? If I had some good preceptors it would be worth it but there’s not much they can do at this point except get in my way, make me nervous, and trip me up.

This weekend I’m getting out of town for real. Going to Salida, run a marathon, see some old running friends, and get some local wine. Maybe a trip to the hot springs is in order. It was almost 70 degrees here today. The last spot of snow in the yard was there this morning and it’s gone now.

Time for the big spring snowstorm.

Peace, love & poo,

Towanda, ICU RN

p.s. I forgot to mention I have now lost 10 of the 15 pounds I gained in nursing school? Recovered yet another pair of too-tight jeans. Seven months after graduation. That’s 1 ½ pounds a month…probably all in the past week from not taking lunch breaks!