All personal stories are recounted
by Susan, a retired nurse.
You arrive
at work at 7:00 in clean scrubs and by 9:00, your scrubs are almost ruined. That is what happens when a sick patient
attempts to ask for a pan, and you can’t get it to them fast enough. Lucky for you, it was smart thinking when you
packed an extra set of scrubs for days like this.
Then your
tablet that you use for patient charting stops working. You are forced to chart the old-fashioned way
for the day, so figure an extra hour there at least. While on break, a child running in the cafeteria
bumped the table and knocked hot coffee all over you, so there goes scrub set
number two. The remainder of the day is
spent in scrubs that must be tied and even then, continue to need to be re-tied
all day.
Your newest
patient refuses to communicate, but is excellent at hitting the call button, so
you spend half of your time trying to determine what the patient needs. Then the family of another patient requests a
quick meeting that actually lasts 1-1/2 hours. What would a long meeting have
been like?
The next
few hours consist of a patient that removed their own IV, and did not do a good
job of it. And another patient that
brought a pint of alcohol in her bag just in case medications were not enough
to relax her.
There were
a few good moments scattered throughout the day, a reassuring“thank you” came
from a patient being discharged. It’s the little things that remind you how
appreciated you really are. A former patient stopped by to say hi, and it was
uplifting to see how well they were doing.
And now you
are missing your stethoscope. It has to be somewhere, so until you find it, you
have to go to the supply closet for another. The day continues, and although you never believed in the theory of
daily horoscopes, you wonder if today you should have checked yours.
Other
Nurses’ Bad Days
A patient’s
family badmouthed me because I refused to wipe their bed when they called
because I had already been called to another room for something a medical
emergency. I had also been honest with a family and stated that what they
wanted would not be done until later in the afternoon because it was shift
change and there was no one to do it (he wanted the patient taken outside).
This person knew the CEO of our unit and went to him, to let him know I refused
to do something.
How do you
get over this and go back to work? I really didn’t even want to go back because
of the day I had.
People can
at times be unrealistic in their expectations.
In a case such as this, you must assume that even if the patient knows the
CEO and expressed a complaint, it most likely did not have much of an
impact. If they complain about things
easily, this isn't the first time, and it won't be the last. The CEO is probably accustomed to hearing
unnecessary complaints. Continue to be professional
and polite to the patient, and remember, this too shall pass.
Life isn’t
always perfect, and if you are gainfully employed Nurse, you undoubtedly know
this by now. There will be good days,
bad days, happy days, and sad days. You
will have very nice patients, and some not so nice patients, but being the
professional you are, you treat them all with respect. You will make mistakes, however, if you learn
from them, consider them a lesson instead of a mistake. You will grow as a person, and you will grow
as a nurse. There will be times you
wonder why you chose this profession, and times when you remember exactly why
you chose it. But for now, you just want
the day to end!
Related: Esteemed Nurse Grace A. Sinkiewicz,
LPN, will be Highlighted in the Worldwide Leaders in Healthcare
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