Just another 12 hour shift.....

I guess one reason I shouldn't attempt to post at 0130 is the fact that I can actually run the risk of hitting the wrong key and wiping out what I just spent over an hour typing. Dang!!! Note to self.....

Anyhow, I guess this way at least I will make this post brief. I was telling you all about my week thus far. It started on Monday up at 0500 and off to work by 0600.

I arrived at work and my patient assignment was a 53 year old gentlemen admitted with a diagnosis of a stroke. I go in to the patients room and introduce myself telling him I am going to be his nurse for the day and proceed to chat whilst I was doing my morning assessment. That conversation alone told me so much what was going on with him...that becomes part of my assessment. Anyhow, NVS look improved over night shifts assessments, GCS has always been 15. It's about 0900 now and I go into his room just to check up on him. He tells me he is not feeling well, like he did last night. He does look worse than from original assessment. I quickly do another NVS....notable difference....stat CT ordered and off we go. Results come back negative for a bleed. But why then is he having stroke like symptom? He needs to be seen by a neurologist. We don't have one on site. This means he needs to get down island. That is a 3 hr drive. Ambulance is booked for the transfer. Guess who gets to go with him? You got it....Yours truly. Well the ambulance arrives...great I say off we go. No such luck....dang now what. Oh you have to take another patient. This patient needs a pacemaker and gallbladder surgery. Great and he needs to go monitored as his heart rate dips into the low 20's. Hmmmmmmm....ok then....if he has to be on the monitor I decide I am going to put the pacer pads on him, because if he becomes symptomatic I can turn the external pacer on and pace him. We get loaded into the ambulance. Me the two patients and all of the equipment that goes along with it. 3hours in the back of an ambulance with these two gentlemen. OMG...just get me there.

3 hrs later we are there.....First stop I take the stroke patient to the admitting ward and give report, say my goodbyes and wish him well. Dash back to the ambulance and off to another hospital with my cardiac/surgical patient. Get him settled in. Back into the ambulance for the 3 hr drive back north to my hospital. I'm into overtime at this point. I don't get home until 2100hrs and have to be up again at 0500 for another day shift, and here I am now it's what....Tuesday...nope Wednesday nights and I am on my 1st night shift. Dang I am tired.

You know many people ask me why do I do it. Work these crazy shifts, and deal with all the crap we have to deal with during the course of a 12 hour shift. You know, sometimes I ask myself the same question.

It's when I see that I made a difference for a patient even if it is the simplest thing as getting them a warm blanket, or a jug of fresh water, or listening to one of their stories or just holding their hand, letting them know that someone cares, that I care about their well being. That I want them to be healthy and that I acknowledge that being in the hospital may be foreign and frightening for some of them, and trying to help eliviate some of those fears.

I wish you all good health.