Keeping you alive till 725.

Baby Nurse Status. Critical Care New Grad RN | Nursing Scribbles.

[nursingscribbles]

When your goals are so close to coming through, you could just taste it...

Last week marked my 1 year anniversary as a nurse. It was bittersweet. I couldn't believe that it went by so quickly. There's still so much to learn, I even had the plan laid out for me.

Today, I'm in the process of interviewing with my goal hospital. I just finished the first round-- a group interview with all the potential candidates.

Now I'm moving onto the next round with the managers and charge nurses. It's slowly unfolding. I've been wanting to work for this hospital since I was in nursing school.

I am nervous. But I am determined.

I can do this, and I will do this.

[nursingscribbles]

Me every time I float to our Burn ICU and patients and their family ASSUME I know the most with wound care.

No ma'am.

I wouldn't know how to perform your dressing changes but I sure as hell can irrigate your Red Robin with Dakins.

...if I got that right.

[nursingscribbles]

Impending doom.

As nurses we develop our own gut feelings. We develop haunches, that have no scientific reasoning - which is difficult to explain to others, especially if our practice is evidence-based.

Impending doom.

Our unit admitted a 70year old female at 0100. She was a code 3, full arrest from a SNF. She had eventually achieved ROSC at 2300.

She came up to our unit intubated, on amio, levo and Vanco. We were due to start her on a versed drip. She was anxious and able to follow simple commands.

We do our thing.

Untangled her lines. Set her ventilator up. We were about to change her from her ED sheet to the ICU sheet when she just stopped resisting. It’s not much of a thing.

But you know.

0745: Code Blue ICU Bed 48

[nursingscribbles]

We have this patient on our unit that got so sick, we weren't sure if he was going to make it.

At one point one of the he was on Propofol, fentanyl and nimbex because he was fighting the vent so much.

Today he is Alert and oriented, follows commands. His foley is off, his rectal tube is out. He's on his Tbar at 28% fio2. No drips, just IVF.

We is very weak, but we are planning to have him dangle him off his bed tomorrow morning.

Ain't that a beauty.

[nursingscribbles]

I've watched 2 seasons of Grey's Anatomy in 2 days.

It has truly inspired to be to be a lot more aggressive with furthering my nursing experiences.

March, I hit my first year as a nurse. I know I've learned so much, but there's always much more to learn.

I'd want to be able to handle the CRRT machine, Open heart patients immediately post the OR, Balloon pumps, etc.

I know I'm young, and I'm it's still pretty early in my career...but I want to learn.

I aspire to be a more well rounded nurse. I know I can do it.

Welcome 2018.

[nursingscribbles]

I have 6 consecutive days off because I worked my butt off for 3 on 1 off and 3 on.

It's rewarding. I've been watching Greys Anatomy. I'm already on season 2!

And I'm NOT ashamed about it!

[studentparamedicsaus]

Don’t want two patients

[nursingscribbles]

1900: Rapid Afib 150s. During shift: Amio bolusx2, Amio gtt, cardizem gtt, dig push x3. 0658: P wave shows up AND sustains.

There's a P-wave guys.

THERES A P WAVE!!!!

Things like these makes me soooo happy.

3 shifts on - one off - 3 shifts on...I'm out. ✌🏼

[nursingscribbles]

When your patient is on a 100mcg/kg/min and we are running low of 1000ml propofol bottles. The struggle is quite damn real.

[nursingscribbles]

When your DKA patient goes from resting SR of 70s to ST 110s, you check the CCTV to see your patient getting a handjob from his girlfriend.

I cleaned the hell out of that room once I walked in.

I could not.

[nursingscribbles]

My patient: "I have never gotten the flu shot because I never get sick. I'm always healthy. I got sick with the cold last December. I don't take any medications. I was told I was pre-diabetic. But I don't get sick."

Gets admitted for DKA and Influenza.

[sarcasticbabywhispererjess]

My patient’s family member complains that they couldn’t sleep because of the noise in the next room... where we’re coding my other patient...

[nursingscribbles]

Ma’am, if i may intrude…

MA’AM. 

THIS IS A HOSPITAL.

This happened to me a couple of weeks ago. My patient’s daughter, was complaining to me that we were being too loud next door where we were coding a patient 4x throughout the night. 

She was upset how she was not getting restful sleep, all while nurses, a doctor, and EKG tech, an XRAY tech, a pharmacist, and several RT’s were by bedside trying to resuscitate another patient. I took in the comment, and did the routine: “I’m sorry you weren’t able to get the sleep you needed.”

She gave me the shrug and the eye rolls throughout the night as I do my rounds while her mom (my patient) remained vented, sedated with a pacer/aicd, throughout the night –not that that information would’ve changed my care, however just to put things into perspective. 

Again, i apologized before i left my shift, and i hope she get some sleep throughout the day. She somehow still insisted that she was in the right, and it was my wrong, or the hospital’s wronging for keeping her up all night. It was my last shift of the week–and i was not about to argue and involve myself in a lose-lose situation. 

Apparently, one or two nights later, her mother coded. 

I wasn’t there. But i know for the fact that my coworkers ran the routine…

Family members need to understand that the hospital is NOT the best place to get that restful sleep. Things don’t quiet down just because it’s the night time, and your body cycle indicates it’s time to go to sleep. 

Alarms and codes remain in place whether it’s day or night–and this is to keep OUR PATIENTS SAFE. I’m writing this, not out of spite, but to remind patients and family members that nurses & hospital staff are entirely human. There are calculated reasons as to why it takes us longer than usual to answer your call light, or why the room next door is extremely loud. Trust that there are reasons. Because more often than not, there ARE reasons.

Please understand.

Sincerely, your nurse.

[geekyaggie14]

So this popped up on my Pinterest today. And I love it! And why?? Because this is the relationship I want all departments to have!

I’m a floor nurse (med-surf), and we get a little bit of everything, and I cannot tell you the amount of times we get an admit from ED and once we get them settled we complain to each other that labs weren’t drawn, IVs aren’t labeled, Foley’s aren’t stat locked, or a million other little things. And then we fix what needs fixing, label all the things, and care for our patient.

Similar things happen when we get patients from PACU.

And sending a patient to ICU or PCU? Ugh. Sometimes those nurses drive me nuts! They can be way exacting and seem condescending.

Now before everyone starts unfollowing me let me say this: I LOVE ALL OF THESE NURSES!!

ICU is exacting because they HAVE to be. They have to watch grime output every hour, track Q2hr labs, turn, clean, monitor vents, watch vitals so carefully! They have to know everything.

ED, Lord I could never be an ED nurse. Patient in Rm 1 is crumping and Rm 2 has a runny nose and is screaming and cursing for dilaudid and a sandwich and “I’m gonna call the manager and patient relations because I am in pain and only dilaudid works!!!” And the you will have 20-30 patients in a twelve hour shift. That is crazy!!!!

And all of the other floors and areas have their own struggles! Every nurse has a place where they fit and where they love. So I say all of that to say this:

That is why I loved this picture!! Every floor has it’s good things and bad things. So why can’t we admit where our floor falls short? And where our floors excel? And lift up other floors for what they rock?!?! Because let’s face it, at the end of the day nurses have to take care of nurses. If we all, every floor, every department have one another’s backs, nothing can stop us!!!!

I love all my nursing peeps out there!!!

[nursingscribbles]

The accuracy is real! 😂

My boyfriend is an ED nurse and sometimes we joke about the differences in nursing practice.

I like my patients a certain way, and he likes his.

One night he was complaining to me how he was holding 3 patients the whole of his shift, and they kept pressing the call light for the most mundane things.

He is an Emergency man, his brain thrives of hustle and bustle.

The other day I was venting to my man about how I had 3 Tele patients holding in the ICU while another ICU patient is on its way up to me. I was on overdrive. My Tele patients kept pressing the call buttons asking when they’re able to get their sleeping med, etc etc. I could not wait to ship them out the door. I know, it’s mean. I’m sorry to say that.

And don’t get me started on how I know I piss some MS/Tele nurses off when they send me their patients and I ask “stupid questions” like

“How much was their last u/o”

“Were they on Afib the whole time or were they trying to convert to Sinus?”

“How many episodes of Vtach runs did the patient have?”

“Who is the intensivist writing orders”

“Were am labs drawn?”

I know these are things I can look up on my own free time, but when shit hits the fan, I would like to have access to these ‘silly questions’ at the tip of my fingers.

It indeed takes a team keep everyone safe. I’m grateful for my fellow nurses and the ancillary staff that keeps every thing in check, especially in these busy times.

[ithelpstodream]

[jehovahhthickness]

You can’t be serious… that shit is soooooo unsafe for the patient and taxing on nurse 😩

[diaryofaprettycurse-deactivated]

As a nursing major this hurts me. It’s already hard enough taking care of someone who cannot take care of themselves but NOW we don’t have the materials needed to administer care. This pisses me off 😒

[jadorexjaii]

Man what the fuck

[tanaje]

He’s telling the truth, I currently work at a hospital and there is a nationwide shortage of IV fluid bags. So bad that they’re referring to alternative methods like medications that can be administered orally or like the post above. Smh

[sauvamente]

Not to mention the shortage of antibiotics

[thememacat]

WTF??

[beachgirlnikita]

Some 40% of drugs and supplies used in the US were manufactured in PR. Drug shortages were predicted after the hurricane and now they are starting to happen.  Since PR doesn’t seem to be considered to be part of the US by this administration, help to fix it has been short and late in coming, which means that drug shortages will only get worse.

Are we great yet?

[disasterlarper]

in the children’s hospital i was rotating at we weren’t changing central line tubing (lines that go.. directly to your heart, as in, not something you want infected) for six days instead of 3 due to shortages

[the-real-seebs]

what the fuck

this is sort of horrifying

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

More than half of my clients have had to have their entire medication regimens reworked. Medication regimens that they had been stable and supported on for months or years. Medication regimens that had helped them steadily improve and progress in their lives had to be thrown out the window and completely started over by trial and error again because their medications are no longer available.

People are dying in Puerto Rico and people are going to die on the continental US as well.

[lacommunarde]

Merck’s main manufacturing facility is in PR, if you want a name.

[bobcatmoran]

The FDA actually put out a press release on this today. Apparently it’s not just the IV bags, but the fluids as well that are in short supply. There’s a (worryingly long) list of drugs and related paraphenelia experiencing shortages [here].

[knittinggothgirl-deactivated201]

Press release was 1/5/2018

[nursingscribbles]

Current status:

We are out running out of:

500cc NS bags

D5 1/2 NS bags

Flushes

Masks

Morphine

Tamiflu

Propofol

InPatient beds

Nurses

The hospitals are getting pooped out.

So please understand that if your wait time is longer than usual, it means that there are people sicker than you.

And we have to save them too.

[01sentencereviews]

[nursingscribbles]

I know my story is nothing compared to other women who actually faced sexual advances by men who think they can run us, just because we are deemed inferior. But here's my story, and here is my truth...

I remember starting off as a fresh EMT on the field, and I my first partner was a man, who's name I don't even remember at this point, who was condescendingly arrogant.

"You sure you can do lift that?"

"You sure you have the strength to push through this 12 hour shift?"

"You sure you can restrain that patient by yourself back there?"

"You sure you don't want to just let me drive? I want to get to scene on time."

All throughout my career up till this point, I've faced many men who don't think I can do what I do--just because I'm a woman. I'm judged by the way I look, instead of what I can offer to the table.

I listened to sexual comments being thrown at me. I listened to them mocking my inability to complete my courses. I listened while some recommended I should just "be a stripper, because my ass was built for it". I listened while fellow women tell me "boys will be boys".

I listened hard, and I observed just as hard. I watched as men who felt like they should say something, shy away from these offending comments. But I don't blame them.

But over time I grew. I built courage and I realized, I do not need men to stand up for me. I have grown into my own self realization, and I now can stand up for myself and other women who have to face these circumstances.

Now, I dare you.

I dare you turn me down.

I dare you mock me.

I dare you to offer your unwanted sexual advances.

I dare you to throw in your sneering comments.

I dare you.

[nursingscribbles]

The flu season, vaccinations, washing your hands, wearing a mask, etc is just another topic that people like to openly debate on until your family member is in the hospital, vented, sedated and on a paralytic. Then it's just shoulda, coulda, wouldas. I'm pretty sure other comorbities play a part, but the flu does damage.

As seen on my fb feed.