Win some, lose some

Nursing, I have discovered, is like just about every other career out there. Some days you love your job and feel fulfilled, satisfied, and perhaps some warm fuzzies after a good day at work. Other days, the time crawls by, especially after the fourth code "brown." I mostly choose to write about the good days, as those are the days I want to remember...especially since I'm not yet an official member of the nursing profession.

Today was one of the good days, surprisingly so. It started with my alarm rudely telling me to wake up at 4:45am, a most ungodly hour. (How on earth did I wake up this early every morning for middle school, Mom?) I know what you might be thinking...how can any day begun that early turn out "good;" unless of course it's in order to catch a flight to the Caribbean. Anyways, back to the good day.

I was assigned to the Emergency Department. I was quite wary about this as I've heard that the nurses in this particular ED can be brusque, short-fused, and generally over-worked. I also heard from the student who had this rotation last week that she wasn't allowed to do much. The nurses preferred to start their own IVs and caths because they did it quicker. (Now I'm not pointing any fingers here because I completely understand how a student can be a millstone during a hectic day in the ED.)

I purposely got there 15 minutes before the change of shift to hear report and figure out which nurse would be good to shadow. I set my stuff down in the break room just in time to hear all the night nurses warning the day nurses how crazy it would be because all the rooms in the hospital were taken, so none of the patients in the ED who needed to be admitted could be transfered...so the ED had become a mini Medical/Surgical unit. This meant they had to open up the ED 2 at 6am. (ED 1 has 12 beds and is always in use; ED 2 has 8 beds and is overflow. It generally is only open from 0900-2300.) I immediately asked the nurse who would be opening ED-2 if I could shadow him as this meant I would get to see new patients - watch them be triaged, assessed, etc... This was the best decision I made. Of course, it helped that the nurse just "happened" to be awesome. I never thought I would ever want to be an ED nurse, but today may have just made me consider it: I started half a dozen IVs, a foley cath, drew several labs, took EKGs, administered Narcan (did I mention I love this drug?), sang to a little girl, and gave a few shots among other things. I was never bored but neither was I ever frantic. I'm certain if someone had come in who was having an acute MI or stroke, my perception on the day might be different. But I did get to see a good variety of patients from a 3 y/o to a 90 y/o, from an angry lady to a extremely lethargic lady, and the list goes on...

Oh, and I have to say that my biggest victory was starting an IV in a older gentleman for whom the RN wasn't able to start the IV. Why he let a student try after he blew the vein, I don't know. But I'm glad he did... And he's going to get a lot of ribbing over the next few weeks!!