Three days a week, 12 hour shifts.
The good thing about 12 hour shifts is that I don't have to be at work 5 days a week. The new boss was doing rounds with the nurse educator and she's being oriented to the daily tools of the trade. I don't know how long she last did bedside nursing. She was case management manager before she took on the Chief Nurse Officer job. The former CNO was a critical care nurse so let's see if the case management background can make the hospital's nursing operation a better experience.
Early on the shift a patient was having a hard time breathing. I'm clueless to his status but I heard from the nurses that he and his family are quite a handful. One of the family members has a blog that documents their unpleasant experience here at Casa. I was surprised. People are unhappy in the sacred ground, the miracle place? Many a patients have walked out of this facility from a hopeless crumple of a human remain to a functioning/partially functioning human being. Therapy works and for some in miraculous ways.
Anyway, his parents refuse to send him back to the ER. Stating the last time he was sent there he didn't have to be there. It is common for families to know more than the medical professionals. It's annoying and I can't stand annoying people. Family is one of the biggest hurdles or one of the best friends to medical healing and progress. The doctor disagreed with the family so off to the ER. The rest of the day was quiet.
What surprises most nurses is why this patient choose to stay at Casa. I personnaly will find some other place to continue my rehab. They even refered to the nurses, respiratory therapist and nurse assistants as the three stooges. Now that is ungrateful, pure evil, and totally unnecessary. During the evening report, most of the nurses wishes he doesn't make it back. The supervisor wants to pack his things out so another patient can take his room. LOL, it's funny how Karma works for some people. The patient is paralyzed to the lip down (just pun, no such thing) and has a trach (aka superman C. Reeves) type of status. Perhaps some huge pulmonary infection has taken shelter in his lungs and his already beaten up immune system can no longer take the constant barrage of infections. Who knows? A nursing home is more than happy to take him as a resident. There he can harass the staff until he meets his creator.
Census is kinda low, so the case managers are scrounging to get patients to fill the empty beds. Some are bad choices, like the HIV patient with cancer. He was admitted so he can get his strength back for chemo. Well, he got so sick he was sent back to the hospital. Last word was he was in a coma. We even have a patient who had radiation therapy. No CNA will want to go near her. Ofcourse, she was my patient. At first I was pissed but as the day go on, she wasn't too bad. She hardly calls and being radioactive, no one is allowed to be with her for more than 30 mins. No family showed up for 2 days, the length of his radiation isolation. I love radiation therapy, it keeps the family out of the loop.
Don't et me wrong, there are a lot of great families out there. The stupid ones are the problem. Don't discuss meds with me, it's like discussing transmission overhauling with a mechanic. It's complex and very confusing. Hey that's why I'm the nurse, stamped and approved by the state. The liason between the doctor who doesn't want to talk to the stupid people.
The good thing about 12 hour shifts is that I don't have to be at work 5 days a week. The new boss was doing rounds with the nurse educator and she's being oriented to the daily tools of the trade. I don't know how long she last did bedside nursing. She was case management manager before she took on the Chief Nurse Officer job. The former CNO was a critical care nurse so let's see if the case management background can make the hospital's nursing operation a better experience.
Early on the shift a patient was having a hard time breathing. I'm clueless to his status but I heard from the nurses that he and his family are quite a handful. One of the family members has a blog that documents their unpleasant experience here at Casa. I was surprised. People are unhappy in the sacred ground, the miracle place? Many a patients have walked out of this facility from a hopeless crumple of a human remain to a functioning/partially functioning human being. Therapy works and for some in miraculous ways.
Anyway, his parents refuse to send him back to the ER. Stating the last time he was sent there he didn't have to be there. It is common for families to know more than the medical professionals. It's annoying and I can't stand annoying people. Family is one of the biggest hurdles or one of the best friends to medical healing and progress. The doctor disagreed with the family so off to the ER. The rest of the day was quiet.
What surprises most nurses is why this patient choose to stay at Casa. I personnaly will find some other place to continue my rehab. They even refered to the nurses, respiratory therapist and nurse assistants as the three stooges. Now that is ungrateful, pure evil, and totally unnecessary. During the evening report, most of the nurses wishes he doesn't make it back. The supervisor wants to pack his things out so another patient can take his room. LOL, it's funny how Karma works for some people. The patient is paralyzed to the lip down (just pun, no such thing) and has a trach (aka superman C. Reeves) type of status. Perhaps some huge pulmonary infection has taken shelter in his lungs and his already beaten up immune system can no longer take the constant barrage of infections. Who knows? A nursing home is more than happy to take him as a resident. There he can harass the staff until he meets his creator.
Census is kinda low, so the case managers are scrounging to get patients to fill the empty beds. Some are bad choices, like the HIV patient with cancer. He was admitted so he can get his strength back for chemo. Well, he got so sick he was sent back to the hospital. Last word was he was in a coma. We even have a patient who had radiation therapy. No CNA will want to go near her. Ofcourse, she was my patient. At first I was pissed but as the day go on, she wasn't too bad. She hardly calls and being radioactive, no one is allowed to be with her for more than 30 mins. No family showed up for 2 days, the length of his radiation isolation. I love radiation therapy, it keeps the family out of the loop.
Don't et me wrong, there are a lot of great families out there. The stupid ones are the problem. Don't discuss meds with me, it's like discussing transmission overhauling with a mechanic. It's complex and very confusing. Hey that's why I'm the nurse, stamped and approved by the state. The liason between the doctor who doesn't want to talk to the stupid people.
