#nursingstories

[everythingnursingposts]

ANOTHER NURSING FIGHT!!

Got into an argument with my nurses’ aides!! And how I resolved it the wrong way…. LEARN FROM MY MISTAKE I have 2 nurses’ aides that refuse to take ONLY a 30-min lunch break, they take a 45min break and come back from break with food. They sit and eat for an extra 30mins. CALL BELLS GOING OFF, they’re still sitting and eating. Call bells are call lights patients have in their rooms to call for assistance. So, they would press their little red button and an alarm will sound off for staff to answer when they need help with anything. So, at the end of the shift I pulled all the nurses’ aides to the side and with my charge nurse spoke to them about taking breaks on time. They walked away at the end of my last word with attitude and disregarded what I said, when I spoke to them respectfully, and gave them a fair warning that they will get written up if its repeated. When the supervisor came to our unit to complain about all the bells going off and wanted to write up the CNA’s we stated that we just had a staff meeting and it went bad. They disregarded what we said, and walked away disrespectfully. SUPERVISOR STATED THAT NEXT TIME, WE MUST LET HER KNOW, AND SCHEDULE A MEETING WITH HER INVOLVED TO INTER-MEDIATE THE CONVERSTAION SO ITS WELL DOCUMENTED AND SHE CAN BACK US UP. So, my lesson is, don’t take it upon yourself to try to manage any conflicts with your staff make sure to let your supervisor know what’s going to help you decide on resolutions. Because chances are they will take what you say wrong and it will escalate. YOU’RE NOT DOING THEM OR YOU A FAVOR PULLING THEM TO THE SIDE TO TALK ABOUT THEIR ACTIONS. They know what they are doing, and if their as disrespectful as my staff they don’t deserve chances.  

[everythingnursingposts]

💰💰💵EXTRA.BONUS PAY!

So I got a call today to fill a shift this week and they offered me A DOUBLE BONUS…😱😷 which is an, EXTRA $150.00. And I’m already going to get $23.25/hr for the shift anyway. 😁😉 💵💰

I first denied her after she offered one bonus, and she then bumped it up to 2 bonuses. I said okay. I said… “you must need ppl desperately?”

she said “YES!”,“ you have a very special floor, no one wants to work it.”

I answered and said “oh yes I know, it’s terrible”…so I guess there’s pro’s and con’s for working on a 40 bed unit for 1 nurse.

I GUESS You just have to embrace the grains of salt your job gives you. It pays. 😂💵💰

[mary-gs-travel]

One Month Left

I have two homes. I will always be “Just a Kid From Akron”, but I have called the Africa Mercy my home for some time. I have one month left onboard this floating hospital before I begin my journey back to the States. I will admit that I am tired. I am ready to return home and spend time with my family and friends, but I also mourn the loss of this beautiful community of faith.

The strength of this community was never so evident to me as it was a week ago when crisis struck.

I was working as charge nurse on the ward when we had a patient suffer an unexpected critical complication many days post operatively. I will tell you that even back home with all the advancements that first-world healthcare has to offer, this patient’s outcome would have been bleak. We did what nurses do and the doctors arrived and did what doctors do and lab arrived and did what lab does, but the ship also goes so much further beyond that.

A call out to all the Crew members with that patient’s blood type was made, so that our living blood bank could be assembled and drawn and given still warm to our patient who was back in the Operating Room. Our receptionist helped me in making the many calls that the situation required to crew who were off ship. Our Chaplaincy arrived to speak and pray with the patients who witnessed the frightening event to talk with them and help them understand what had happened. Many, many nurses came to help, either in the Operating Room or in the Ward, calming the patients and seeing to their needs. An overhead announcement was made so that the entire ship could join together in prayer for this patient at the same time that the international offices were also alerted of the situation and asked to pray.

 “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress.” –Psalm 107:28

 This patient would not have survived had we simply been using our medical knowledge to try and save him. God worked through each and every person on and off the Ship to preserve this man’s life.

 Not only did I witness a miracle of God, but I also felt what it is like to truly work in a community of strong faith. I have seen disaster strike before, I am a nurse after all, but I have never felt the spiritual and emotional support that I felt during and after the event like I did here on the ship that day and in the week to follow. God has assembled an incredible crew of skilled medical personnel on this ship, and during the event I felt absolute confidence in each and every person around me and that gave me peace in the midst of a great storm. After the storm cleared, there was prayer, talking and tears (and I’m not talking about a tiny eye mist… I’m talking a big ole Kim Kardashian Ugly Cry, and no one who witnessed it judged me or made me feel awkward for weeping; if that’s not love than I don’t know what is). All things that I needed to process what had happened to a patient that I am fond of.

 I ask you to continue to pray for this patient. He is a walking miracle, but he will remain in the hospital for some time.

 “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” -1 Peter 5:7

 This community onboard the Africa Mercy is truly an expression of Christ, and I am so honored to be a part of it. I have felt this way for a long time, but last week’s events solidified it in my heart.

[nightingalern]

New faces new stories

I find it fascinating when patients decide to open up to me. Sometimes it's when I'm pushing a medication through their IV, or I could be emptying their Foley catheter. Often it's when I'm doing something task oriented and not when my gaze is focused on them and I'm asking what else can I do for you? It's as if in that particular moment when I'm present but not expecting anything from them they want to share a piece of themselves with me. A gentlemen was telling me back in the "old country" they don't have doctors. There are medicine women and pharmacists who treat the towns people. This was back in the 1940s, but not much has changed since. To have a hernia removed you don't go to a hospital and have it surgically removed, a medicine woman would come to the home and burn it off. He had his hernia "burned off" several times as a youth, but it kept coming back. He's lived with it for 70 years. When I asked him if he planned to have it surgically removed someday now he has the resources, he told me 'Nah, it's a part of me. I've had it this long' Another interesting story I heard recently was of a young boy in Guatemala who lived by the sea. When he was only six years old he witnessed German and U.S warfare during WWII. Him and his friends would watch the submarines come in from Germany and the US had a base there. He said it was something he would never ever forget.