Reasons I Love My Job

Overheard yesterday at work: "So, there's this really nice drunk guy, just got out of jail...."

LOVE IT!

Facebook and boys

When did my generation (though I'll admit to being on the older edge of this "facebook generation" thingy) move from CALLING a love interest, to just texting, to Facebook POKING? What does that MEAN? Is a FB poke a way of showing interest? A way of saying, "I'm aware of you and thinking of you, but unwilling/unable for various reasons to just call and say the same thing?" Or is it a polite way of being put on the back burner? I dunno, but lately, this very phenomenon has been poking (pun intended) its way into my consciousness. Sigh. Various peanut gallery members have various theories, so I guess we'll just see what happens!

Some days

Some days, I feel like being an ER nurse is like wading through molasses. Today was one of those days. I've been an ER nurse for two years, and I'm feeling burned out. Some of my mentors say this is a normal step, but I've been wondering: at what point are you burned out and need a little break, and at what point are you just burned up? I don't want to be one of those nurses I see who doesn't care anymore, but I'm definitely feeling that way at times. Sigh. Maybe it's just that it was another 12 hour day, it was a Code Brown kind of day, and I'm wanting to go out right now on a Friday night, but I'm too tired to get off the couch. I dunno. Blech.

Seriously? You call yourself a nurse?

I admit, I've felt a little burned out lately. However, I have to say that the light of righteous indignation made me a better nurse yesterday. I was the admit/discharge nurse, and I was covering a nurse for his lunch break. While he was medicating a patient, I heard another of his patient's cry out. This poor 75 year old man was halfway off the ER stretcher, sheets bundled around his back, looking terribly uncomfortable. I found a friend, a tech, and we changed the sheets, resituated him, and took his vital signs again. Bad Nurse breezed in, noticed his patient, who'd been there for 4 hours was "suddenly" running a temp (last vitals being 3 hours prior) and rated his pain 10/10, and said, I'll put them in the chart. I said, tightly, with as much civility as I could muster, that I'd take care of it. Got an order for some tylenol and dilaudid and the poor old man was so much more comfortable. You know what? Nurses who can't handle 3 patients alone in the ER, and put a patient in that much discomfort, should be consigned to their patient's fate at that age. See how you like it, buster.