Sunday, May 25, 2008

An the Oscar Goes To...

The ER nurses at UAB (University of Alabama Birmingham) get a gold star and lots of laughs for this hilarious "recruitment video." The video is about 2 years old, so you may have seen it...but its worth it.

I was actually amazed at all the videos about hospitals, nurses, doctors, and patients that are posted on You Tube.


Thursday, May 01, 2008

Ode To A Friend


I had the best day today. Im working on completing my BSN at U of M Flint and today I had to test off on my Physical Assessment class. (much more detailed then what we learned in my ADN program, btw)

A friend of mine, E, politely obliged to be my guinea pig for the exam. It went well, except for the part when I put the tuning fork on the mandibular joint instead of the mastoid process for the Rhine test. My prof was cool, but she didn't correct me until I had made a complete fool of myself...

After the exam, E and I went to lunch and had fun talking about nursing and school and kids and husbands...it was so refreshing. She is a new grad from THE most grueling program around, I respect her for it and know she is an awesome nurse. I can't wait till she's an RN in my ED. Im so excited to have a friend down there that I've known for awhile.

There is nothing like being refreshed by good conversation with a good friend. I feel blessed today.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day and Now - Im In Debt!


I've been turned loose on my ED. No more orientation, no more preceptor, no more hand holding. This is the real thing. Its been about two weeks and I have to be honest, its gone really well. Little did I know that during these past two weeks I have been lulled into a false sense of confidence. Little did I know that an ED nurse never really feels 100% confident, because he/she never knows what the next rig is going to bring in.

My reality check arrived last week, it was a Friday. The short and the sweet of it is, I "got my butt kicked." I knew it was going to be a "terrible, horrible no good very bad day" when my first encounter with an assigned pt was to find him lying on a stretcher with a 12cm 3inch deep lac on his upper arm that was in the process of being "explored" by a surgeon's gloved hand (NOT a sterile glove, by the way). The kid was young and trying to be tough (fists clenched and white knuckled) and I was ticked he hadn't been pre-medicated. In fact, in all reality he should have been taken to surgery for the repair. From that point it just got worse and worse as each new pt arrived. I was bitten in CT by a pt I had just given an amp of Narcan thanks to an OD of Kadian with a respiratory rate of 4. I was yelled at by a cardiologist, and belittled by a cocky neurologist younger than I. UGH!! By the end of the day I wanted to move to Australia.

All of that background to sing the praises of one of our float nurses. He's an ED vet, and he knew exactly what to say and what to do for me. He didn't take over, just took some of the tasks that were "muddy-ing" my waters. He didn't sugar coat it and caudal me. Instead he re-oriented me to my priorities, told me what I could ignore and what I needed to heed. His best advice thru it all was "take a minute to collect yourself, because that is when we make mistakes."

I recognize what he did for me, but its so frustrating to know that he will always know more, always be 10 steps ahead of me, so how will I ever be able to return the favor?
A debt I can't repay.