Scared heartless

I’m not usually easily scared (at least not anymore…when I was a child I was terrified of the dark), however the other night, one of my patients managed to scare me pretty badly.  She was in the hospital for a broken hip and was going to have surgery to repair the break; however the surgeons were having trouble fitting her in due to the high flow of fracture patients being admitted to the hospital. 

Finally, they told the patient they would be able to do the surgery in the morning, so she needed to stay overnight.  The patient was very elderly and a little confused but understood what the doctors were telling her.  As nighttime dropped upon us, the patient began to become even more confused…this is called “sundowners”.  She was so confused she could not remember she was in the hospital, instead she kept thinking she was at her daughter’s house.  I finally helped the patient calm down enough to go to sleep.  As I walked out of the room, I left the door open a crack, so I could keep an eye on her throughout the night. I went about my other jobs of the night. 

At about 2:00 I heard the patient talking in her room, she sounded a little upset.  I knocked gently on the door and walked into the room.  As I got both feet in the room, I heard the patient give a blood curling scream.  The scream was so unexpected in the dark room that it scared me.  I jumped about 2 feet off of the floor before I went running to the bed to check on the patient.  My heart was racing and beating out of my chest and throat where it had ended up after the scream.  The patient was fine except very confused and thought I was a burglar breaking into the room who was going to kill her.  I reassured her and calmed her enough to go back to sleep.

There is definitely never a dull moment when I am working.  J

"Oh My Goodness...I Hope It's not Rigor Mortis!!!"

I’ve always heard it said that nurses make the worst patients…but sometimes they can make the sweetest and funniest patients.  Point in case…

I had a patient who was in for a fractured femur.  She had it repaired with surgery and was in the hospital for awhile waiting for it to heal.  During the many nights of caring for this patient, I got to know her very well.  I learned that she was a retired nurse, who missed all the action. 

One night as I was in her room, helping her turn and move in the bed, I noticed she was really stiff.  I mentioned this to her and suggested that she move around to help unstiffen her body.  She replied.  “Oh my goodness, I hope it’s not rigor mortis!”.  I wasn’t expecting the joke, so it caught me a little off guard, but it ended up giving me a good laugh, and I learned that nurses can be entertaining patients. 

Overworked...Maybe Just a Little

I have learned lately that I am not as young as I once was.  There used to be a time when I could stay up for hours with very little sleep and not have it bother me at all…now I can barely make it through my three nights of work without dragging all over the hospital.  It is a little scary because by the third night…I find myself making more mistakes and doing things that I normally would not do. 

This week was a very long week for me…not only did a work an extra day, but somehow I ended up working a day shift in between a couple of night shifts which is extremely hard to do. 

Anyway…I was taking one of my patients some pills and an IV antibiotic.  I opened up the pills and went to hang up the antibiotic as I was talking to the patient.  The patient then looks at me funny and asks me… “Where are my pills?”  I stopped and looked around all sorts of confused…I then realized what I had done.  I had dropped the pills into the garbage as I was talking to her and went about on my way…I felt really stupid, as I had to tell the patient that I would be right back with some new pills for her. 

Sometimes…I think I work way too much…

"I Think She May Be Dead"

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who is a new graduate nurse and just began working a few months ago.  We were talking about how things were going and the stress of the profession.  She then proceeded to share a lesson that she had learned.
She was working in the ER and it was her first night working with patients of her own with her preceptor only being a resource if she needed her.  Of course she was nervous and scared, because she wasn't sure she was ready (but of course all new nurses feel that way...it would be scary if they didn't).
She got report of a patient coming in via ambulance. They were stable at time of arrival.  She quickly grabbed the supplies she needed and went into see her patient.  As she entered the room she realized something wasn't right with the patient.  She looked at the patient and asked the patient for her name.  The patient didn't say anything.  She then felt for a pulse and couldn't find one and noticed that the patient's hands were ice cold.  She quickly left the room to find her preceptor.
As she was bringing her preceptor back to the room, she told the preceptor that she thought the patient was dead.  The preceptor asked her if she had felt a pulse, took her vital signs and all of the things that a nurse would normally do in that situation.  My friend said that the dyna-map was having a hard time on picking up the vital signs and she couldn't find a pulse and her hands were cold.  The preceptor then asked if she had done a sternal rub.  My friend stopped dead in her tracks and said "No I didn't think about doing that".
My friend and the preceptor did a sternal rub which made the patient sit straight up and scream "OUCH!!! What did you do that for!!! That hurt!!!!"  Needless to say the patient wasn't dead and my friend will probably always remember to do the sternal rub on her patients from here on out.

No Hope for Me...I Swear

If you know me at all...you know that I will be the first one to enjoy a laugh at myself if the occasion arrives.  Since I am not embarrassed of my "way too often" moments of klutzy dumb blond moves...I thought I would share with you all a very funny story. 
It was my first night back after a two day break.  I was fortunate enough to have the majority of my patients back.  This makes it easier on the nurse and also the patient.  Things were going great and it seemed it was going to be one of those long easy nights (not complaining, you need one of those every now and then), and then my blond side came out ;)
I walked into one of my patients room and did my assessment...I listened to his heart lungs and stomach, I palpated his pulses and asked about pain.  He reassured me that he was fine and didn't need anything.  We bantered back and forth for awhile, which of course ended up with me having a very red face and being laughed at...finally the bantering stopped and I told him to let me know if he needed anything. 
As i turned around to leave, I tripped over the garbage can and ended up on the floor!!!  I did a tuck roll and very quickly got on my feet...but of course not in time for my patient NOT to notice my graceful exit!  My face that was already red got ten shades redder and i pretty much fled the room...and avoided the room as much as i could for the rest of the night.  It's hilarious now that I'm looking back on it...but that night I just wanted to crawl into a hole and die of embarrassment.