Here is an
example of a day in the life.
4:45 a.m. My
alarm is buzzing like crazy. After
working a 14 hour shift the previous day, I could certainly use a few more
hours of sleep, which is not going to happen today. Ok, so I'm up. A quick shower, and I have to wake up the
kids. 45 minutes later, out the door,
followed by kids at school, and I'm on my way to the hospital.
The First Four Hours
After checking
in I went to meet new patients admitted overnight. I have four new patients, and the existing
three that were previously admitted. My
first new patient is having unexplained gastrointestinal discomfort, in fact
severe pain. She is a 55 year old woman,
and a CT scan showed some abnormality within the lower intestines. The patient is being observed, and if pain
does not subside, she will, face exploratory surgery.
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My second new
patient is a 39 year old male that was in a motorcycle accident and broke his
leg in 3 places. He is facing surgery
later today.
Patient number
three is an 89 year old female that was admitted from a nursing home, with
chest discomfort.
Patient four
is a 27 year old female that had her gallbladder removed the previous night.
After meeting
with each new patient, I checked in on existing patients, and went to take my
first break of the day. I was
interrupted before leaving on break, a call from an insurance company regarding
my elderly patient. It's very
frustrating, an 89 year old woman with chest pain, and the insurance company
wants her released. After a 20 minute
debate with them, I was pleased to say the patient would remain at least 1 more
day. I got half of my break and returned
to accompany doctors on the rounds. Two
patients are requesting pain medication, and my 89 year old patient appears to
be getting worse. Within the hour she
coded, and our attempts to save her were unsuccessful. Losing a patient is never easy, regardless of
the patient's age or circumstances. It's
now 2pm and I still have 5 hours to go on, my 12 hour shift. I made my rounds to administer medications,
and decided to call the attending physician for my gallbladder patient, she had
a terrible rash all over her body.
Assuming she had an allergy to one of the medications, she was taken off
current medications for pain, and her rash cleared up within 3 hours. The patient with the broken leg returned from
surgery and needed care and pain medication, which took almost 45 minutes. That threw me into late mode for afternoon
medications, so I had patients using the call button to remind me. After making rounds with the doctors it was
5:00 p.m. and I was due for a break, however, I skipped it to get caught up on
paperwork.
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The next two
hours I administered an IV that did not go well, the patient's vein would not
cooperate. I was vomited on, yelled at
for not being more prompt in regards to the call button, and met with the
family of the elderly woman that passed away, in order to give them her
personal belongings. As always, we like
to meet with families such as in this case, in a consultation room, and to allow
time for any questions they may have.
The patient's family spoke highly of her, and told several stories about her life and early on career as
a Vegas show girl. You never want to
rush into a situation such as this, so by the time the family left, it was 6:00
p.m. and my med rounds were going to be late.
I had to record how well each patient ate dinner and by the time I gave
out medications it was 6:45. I finished
up notes for the day, and met with the nurse taking my place, explaining how
each patient was doing, and mentioning any concerns.
Picked
up kids from grandmas, and stopped by McDonald's on our way home. In bed at 11:15 p.m. for a few hours sleep,
so that I can wake up and do it all again.
I love my job.
(Jamie
is a nurse that has been in the medical field for 15 years, she works two 12
hour shifts and one 12-14 hour shift per week.)
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