I used to moonlight at an urgent care clinic. Mother called me at my regular RN job one day to complain of an earache. Like I always do when people ask advice, I recommended she see a doctor. She decided to go to the urgent care clinic where I sometimes worked. I called to speak to my friend, Judy, who was working that day. I asked her to surprise Mother by telling her she had to have a full internal pelvic exam. She knew Mother, and was delighted to pull a little trick on her. Sure enough, she showed Mother to the OB/GYN exam room, telling her to prepare Continue reading
Nursing
I Want It! I Want It!
I was an acute hemodialysis nurse for thirty years, caring for thousands of patients over that time. The most important thing I learned was listen to your patient. I’d cared for Miss Ann for many years, through numerous hospitalizations, surgeries, and procedures. Prior to this admission, she’d told her husband, “I don’t ever want any more surgery.”
Unfortunately, this time she was in ICU on a ventilator and couldn’t speak for herself. She appeared to be unaware of what the doctor was explaining to her, so he asked her husband for surgical consent. Sadly, her husband refused, citing Miss Ann’s intention not to have surgery again. Meanwhile, behind the two of them, Miss Ann was frantically waving her arms trying to get their attention. She wanted surgery.
Miss Ann got her surgery, recovered, and did well for quite a while after that.
Guest Post All in a Day’s Work From Edwina’s Episodes
What a thrill! I have been able to snag the lovely and talented Judy Martin from Edwina’s Episodes to Guest Post on Nutsrok. This is particularly apropos, since we share being nurses and messing up a lot. I am so happy to have her here. Be sure to check her blog!
I had only been on my new ward less than a month and nobody really knew what to make of me. I was training to do a new job that nobody had heard of, as it was just being introduced (a similar role to the State Enrolled Nurse which had been disbanded 10 years before)! I was very quiet as I was still getting to know people, and getting used to the way the ward worked.
Patient care was still top priority and I was working in a bay, looking after six elderly ladies, one of whom had been given some ‘prep’ ahead of her scheduled colonoscopy. It duly did its job, rather too well, as the poor woman had little time to react to the explosion that ensued. I cleaned her up as best as I could as well as the chair. Unfortunately liquid, molten poo has a habit of getting everywhere and I was slipping around in it, as it was also on the floor.
Eventually I got the lot cleaned up, but did not realise that I had some of it spattered on my uniform, which did not go unnoticed by a senior nurse, so I was sent off to theatres to get some scrubs to change into. Immediately! I dabbed at the mess with a cleansing wipe trying to get some of it off before I went, but succeeded in making it look worse.
I arrived at theatres where it seems, part of the criteria of working there is a snooty, not to mention snotty attitude. I asked politely if I could have some scrubs, which I was then made to repeat, When asked why I needed them I explained, and gestured to the poo for good measure, which was met with such a look of disdain that I commented huffily that it wasn’t my poo! I don’t know why I thought it sounded any better, but the scrubs were reluctantly handed over, and I was ordered to return them ASAP.
I went off to the loos and changed into the scrubs. Great, she had given me a ginormous top (I know I am not skinny but this was massive) and long trousers (I am only 5ft 2”). I trotted back to the ward looking ridiculous and noticed a couple of sympathetic smiles aimed my way.
I went to put my soiled uniform in my locker (most people didn’t bother with lockers but I was new so thought it a good idea) and went rummaged around my outsized shirt but I couldn’t find the key! Panic! I scrabbled about frantically searching my person for it. Nothing! I asked the Ward Clerk if she had a spare key. She didn’t.
I retraced my steps to the loos and back to the dreaded theatres, who looked at my wild-eyed red-faced demeanour and desperate to get rid of me, didn’t even bother looking, just said they hadn’t got it. I was really upset by now and more than a little het up. It was now coming up for break time and I was told to go on first break. I was glad of this as I thought I could relax, have a cigarette (or three) as I was smoking then, and start the search for me key afresh.
Wonderful except that my cigarettes were in my locker! Sod it! I was nearly on the verge of tears, but one of the other nurses was a smoker and I bit the bullet and asked her if I could please have one of hers (I have never done that in my life before and felt awful). She was great and let me have one.
Anyway, suffice it to say, the key was not found. Estates had to be called, and when they came onto the ward were moaning about people losing keys and that they should have to pay for it blah, blah. I stayed out the way! They had to break the bloody lock off in the end. What a day!
Link to my guest post on Edwina’s Episodes
http://edwinasepisodes.com/2015/06/04/check-it-out-guest-post-by-linda-bethea/#respond
A Sticky Point!
This falls in the stranger than fiction category. A psychiatric patient admitted to my floor from a group home years ago with a recent diagnosis of incontinence. His CAT scan revealed a calcified bladder stone formed around a sewing needle. When the stone filled the bladder completely, he developed incontinence, Unlike the typical patient who shows up with strange objects in strange places, he hadn’t absent-mindedly sat on it. He gave an excellent history and remembered losing that pesky needle. It just didn’t hurt, so he thought no more about it.
World Championship Foot In Mouth Award
I am the World Champion at talking when I should have been listening. More than thirty years ago, I had a dear friend in Nursing School who was valiantly struggling with morbidly obesity serious enough to interfere with ambulation and other life activities, not to mention the psychic and social pain she dealt with daily. Working Continue reading
Some Things Won’t Be Forgiven
A harried mother came to the urgent care center where I was working her five-year old-boy wearing nothing but a sheet and a frown. He was obviously unhappy with his mother and in distress. I assessed him and asked him the problem.
“I’ve got this big hard piece of tape stuck on the end of my pecker and it won’t come off. She’s had me sitting in the bathtub all morning, and it ain’t come off yet!” With this he shot her a murderous look. She explained he’d had a circumcision recently and the dressing was still clinging stubbornly.
He broke back in furiously, “I told you I didn’t want no surgery! Ever’thin’ was workin’ just fine till you hired somebody to whittle on me!”
I wasn’t getting in that family fight!
Nursing Slip Up
I was reporting back to a doctor on his agitated emergency room patient I had just been caring for. Meaning to say, “He was really bucking and fighting.” I got tangled up and said “f–cking and biting.” Trying to recover before the doc reacted, I snapped back,” but fortunately I didn’t get bit!”
Letter to a Patient from a Nurse:
Dear Patient,
You probably don’t remember me,but I was your nurse. I took care of you when you had your baby, took care of your sick child, comforted you when you were in pain. I worked extra shifts on holidays and weekends because you needed me. I rejoiced when you got better. Cried with you when you needed a friend and tried to help you find the answers. I sang and talked to you when you seemed unresponsive because I knew you were in there. I brought Easter baskets for your children so they wouldn’t be disappointed when they came to see you on Easter. I hugged you and your family. I talked to you about things outside the hospital to give you something else to think about, trying to bring you a story that would interest you everyday, unless you just needed me to be quiet with you. I was there for your miracle and to hold your hand when you died talking to Mama. I never corrected you, knowing it was her hand you were holding.
Nursing was my job, but taking care of you was my privilege. Thank you for letting me be a part of your life.
Decision to Enter Nursing
I was never one of those little girls who dreamed of being a nurse. My interaction with nurses was mostly getting shots at the health unit. It was the least appealing job I could imagine. I got a degree in education . I was a total misfit as a teacher and wanted no part of that field. A stay at home mom, I was content raising my two children thinking, sometime when the time was right, I’d pursue some other discipline.
A friend called one day, wanting to know if I’d keep her son for a couple of hours so she could go register for nursing school. To my shock, I answered, “No, I’m going to nursing school!” Where in the world had that come from? . I never looked back. I registered for nursing school that afternoon. My poor husband was incredulous when he came home. Since I already had a degree, it only took two years to finish. I spent the next thirty years as as nurse, the perfect job for me. It was the best decision that was ever made for me.
Nutsrok 