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Nov. 28th, 2012 09:55 pmIt's been a few days since my last visit here. November's been a busy month for me; I've worked 13 twelve hour shifts in ICU out of the 30 days in the month, which is pretty much full time. Between that and being out at the farm, there hasn't been a lot of down time for me, not that I'm complaining; I like being busy. But when I get home I sometimes don't feel like doing anything besides sitting and watching a little TV, something that doesn't take any mental energy.
My last three shifts were busyish. Yesterday I transferred my patient from our ICU to our sister hospital, which takes some of the long term ventilated patients; I got to go in the ambulance and they went lights and sirens all the way. Felt quite exiting! Then when we got to the other ICU it turned out that there had been a rather large failure of communication (the doctors in our ICU also rotate through that one, and the ones on call had spoken to each other about the transfer, but the receiving MD had neglected to tell the ICU staff we were coming), so I got yelled at by the charge nurse..a bit over the top reaction, but I could understand his frustration. I apologised profusely, what else could I do? all in all, a lesson in how not to communicate. Never assume that someone else is taking care of it. Oh, well. At least I got a road trip in the middle of the shift!
Today was busy, too. I was the "help and relief" RN, which means I covered breaks for the nurses in the isolation rooms, helped out wherever a hand was needed, ran errands etc. It's surprising how busy it can be. I was kind of like a firefighter, putting out little fires here and there. Still, it was a good day; after a few weeks of not much happening, we're feeling like an ICU again. When things are quiet, we get a little bored.
I haven't had a chance to get into the new Dresden Files book yet; I didn't want to start it and end up reading half the night when I had to go to work in the morning, 'cause that's what would happen. It's waiting for me tonight since I have a couple of days off.
My last three shifts were busyish. Yesterday I transferred my patient from our ICU to our sister hospital, which takes some of the long term ventilated patients; I got to go in the ambulance and they went lights and sirens all the way. Felt quite exiting! Then when we got to the other ICU it turned out that there had been a rather large failure of communication (the doctors in our ICU also rotate through that one, and the ones on call had spoken to each other about the transfer, but the receiving MD had neglected to tell the ICU staff we were coming), so I got yelled at by the charge nurse..a bit over the top reaction, but I could understand his frustration. I apologised profusely, what else could I do? all in all, a lesson in how not to communicate. Never assume that someone else is taking care of it. Oh, well. At least I got a road trip in the middle of the shift!
Today was busy, too. I was the "help and relief" RN, which means I covered breaks for the nurses in the isolation rooms, helped out wherever a hand was needed, ran errands etc. It's surprising how busy it can be. I was kind of like a firefighter, putting out little fires here and there. Still, it was a good day; after a few weeks of not much happening, we're feeling like an ICU again. When things are quiet, we get a little bored.
I haven't had a chance to get into the new Dresden Files book yet; I didn't want to start it and end up reading half the night when I had to go to work in the morning, 'cause that's what would happen. It's waiting for me tonight since I have a couple of days off.
