I hate to say this statement…but in all actuality…some days it sucks to be a nurse. I know this sounds bad and many of the new nurses or new graduates who read this are not really going to understand how I can say this statement so casually…but honestly…some days it just sucks.
But let me explain a little… It is very common for nurses to have bad nights. In fact you usually end up having more “bad” nights then good nights. However, every now and then you get those nights where you just want to stop and stomp your foot or even better go into the supply room and crawl into a corner and cry your eyes out. I had one of those nights just recently.
Event #1- The night was going relatively fine until the code alarm went off. Thankfully it wasn’t on my wing but of course my co-worker and I both went running to see if they needed help. When we arrived, we made a quick decision that she would stay and help and I would go cover our patients. I just want to throw in here, that I had everything under control and in fact it was one of the rare moments where everyone was sleeping, in spite of the loud alarm blaring over the intercom. When she returned, she informed me that the patient was not stable and probably was not going to make it but she was going to be transferred to the ICU.
Event #2- About an hour later, my co-worker was informed she was getting a new admit. As she was getting report she began to question whether the patient should be admitted to an acute care floor. But of course, he was anyway. My co-worker found out this patient, had been admitted for respiratory failure and had just been extubated less than 24 hours before being transferred to our floor. He arrived and seemed to be doing perfectly fine. He was ambulating to the bathroom and participating in his care, and answering questions. My co-worker left the room to let him rest. About an hour after this, one of our techs entered into the room to take his vitals. He was not in the room for more than 10 seconds when he came running out telling the other nurse to go check on the patient. My co-worker and I went to check on the patient. We found him having trouble to breathe and upon listening to the lungs, discovered he had almost no air movement. I quickly went to call the doctors and rapid response. Long story short…this patient also coded and was moved to the ICU, with the family deciding to remove preventative care and instead focusing on palliative care. This of course, gave us a clue that this patient probably would not have a very good outcome either.
Event #3- Admist the normal business of the rest of the night, once again the code blue alarm went off…again not on our unit. Once again we went running, to yet a different unit to find another patient coding. I once again went to cover the rest of our patients. Thankfully this patient, was able to be revived and was fine but also moved to the ICU for further monitoring.
Event #4- At this point, I wasn’t exactly sure how much more I could take of this night and it was only 0300. I went into give some medications to one of my patients who had been on our unit for many months. As I entered the room I noticed that the pulse ox was doing funny things. It was saying that his heart rate was going from 129 to 49 and then back up to 130s. Then his heart rate suddenly plummeted to 29 and at this point his oxygen saturation went from 100% to 49%. Once again rapid was paged to the floor and once again the code cart (our fourth one that night) had to be cracked in order to save the patient. The patient was transferred to the progressive care floor.
Event #5- As we were finishing up our night, another nurse came up to inform us that the patient from the third code had actually died even though he was probably the most stable one after the codes. It was this news that managed to be the last straw. With this news, my co-worker and I just looked at each other and walked out the door with slumped shoulders.
My word of advice for you newbie nurses...Remember...There are always going to be rough days...days where nothing seems to go according to plan...days where no matter how hard you try you just can't seem to save your patients...days where you can literally feel death hanging in the air...and days where you just know there is nothing you can do to change it or to help...days that will make you wonder what the point is or if there is even a point... But thankfully there is also ALWAYS good days...days where you can make a difference...days where you can save a life...days where you can be one person that can help...and days that make it all worth and days that make you understand that no matter how many nights suck...there is always a point...and that is doing what you can to bring about the most good for the most amount of people
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