I hope everyone will forgive the lack of posts in the last few weeks, but it is that time of the year again! The unit is getting admits and most of them are train wrecks.
Normally a typical assignment in our units for a single nurse consists of one vent and one "walkie talkie" this way the nurse only has one total care patient. A stable vent requires q2hr turns, a full bed bath etc, so they take up a little more time so you don't hit a nurse with two vented patients unless they ask for it,
This past week there was not a single patient in the unit that was not on a ventilator, meaning every nurse had a double vent load and some of us ended up with seriously unstable vents that had us hopping all night. Top it off with a code, a couple of emergency bed side procedures and it made for a very busy week.
On weeks like this you will find that it is the team you work with that makes or breaks the shift. Lucky for me we had a great team and even though it was a rough three in a row we found time to laugh and although we were beat up and tired at the end of the night we walked out smiling. These are the sorts of nights where I am so thankful for finding the job that I did (or it finding me) and where I really, really love my job.
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