Delirious by 8pm...

Last night upon arriving at work and going to my pod, a strange thing happened.  There are different stages of nurse emotion I experience through the night, which usually go something like this:

7pm - when I come on - motivation/energy (I have coffee)
8-10pm -- still good, pretty motivated (the coffee is still in my system) increasing stress level with increasing patient load
11-12:30 - - Hanger sets in (hunger + anger), empathy decreases, maximum irritability
LUNCH between 12-2
2am-4am - - depression, fatigue, least motivation, all empathy gone, things are funny
5am - Yay!  It's morning time!  A small return of energy, still no empathy
6am - BREAKFAST, cafeteria opens!  (My favorite part of the day)
6:30am-7:05am - time stops, we usually get really busy and run in circles get ambulances and patients in through triage and we die a little inside until the next shift comes out. (empathy still gone)


Well, last night I went straight from 7pm motivation to ALL THINGS ARE HILARIOUS by 8pm.  I think it was because we were so busy and I was in the psych pod and all the patients were so ridiculous I just skipped all empathy decreases and went straight to sitting and laughing at everything.  We had two patients tied to their beds in restraints, drunk patients everywhere, adults yelling "mama!" over and over again, patients trying to fight other patients, patients from the prison and jail, sobbing patients, patients talking to imaginary friends, patients puking and peeing in the bed and ambulances rolling in with patients drunkenly yelling "I'm home!" and trying to fall off the stretchers as they came through the doors.  Plus we were short staffed.  Wonderfully I skipped irritability and increasing stress level and I thought everything was pretty darn funny.  It also was a life-saver that one of my good buddies was my other pod mate. 

Later in the morning another friend and I made individualized anger flow charts and gave them to each other so we can try to figure out why the other person in cranky/angry and how we can fix it in the future.  My solutions to the various anger-causing issues I have included sleep, chocolate, Midol, homicide, and "brush your hair, put your chapstick on and PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER!".  Most of hers revolved around wearing pretty shoes and/or sweatpants.  She is not a nurse, she works in the registration side, so this could be a possibility for her. 

so good

This is THE BEST

http://improveverywhere.com/2013/11/19/harry-potter-in-real-life-movies-in-real-life-episode-8/

sayings

I remember hearing some of these for the first time and thinking "what in the world????"

13 Southern Sayings That The Rest Of America Won't Understand

http://www.businessinsider.com/southern-sayings-2013-10

cruel, cruel world

Last night I got stuck working on one of the more cruel nights of nursing...daylight savings time.  As if 12 hours are not difficult enough, on this special night at 2am we all get to watch the clocks turn back an hour.  It is like being trapped in a nightmare. Also, the computers all go down so we have the added misery of paper charting then trying to convert all the paper charting back to electronic charting once the computers are back to working on top of it.  I had it pretty easy this time, not going to lie, as I was in triage so I just had to hand write the complaint and vitals instead of typing them.  The fact that I was in triage tonight and the fact that I was in triage the night the little old constipated lady came back in for a digital dis-impaction makes me think the ER gods are looking out for me...every once in a great while ; )

On a happier note here is the sweet and precious fur baby sporting an early 2000's Abercrombie zip up jacket.  If he doesn't melt your heart nothing will. 

some maths

I am only part way through this equation but let's hope this is how it turns out:

12-hour shift + big breakfast at end of shift (eggs, ham, home fries, French toast) + hot shower (w/Jo Malone Vit E body scrub) + heating blanket + memory foam bed + black out curtains = FANTASTIC SLEEP TODAY


Wish me luck!

best video ever?

Basically someone really talented made a short video of my time in the South.  Make sure your sound is up. 

best video...biograhical musical

Todrick Hall is my new hero.

Struggles

     When I was in nursing school I had no idea that ER dealt mainly with non-emergent care.  I wonder if knowing that would have changed my mind about going into that field.  If someone had said "Every day you will have to take care of people who have made bad decision after bad decision and you can't let it get to you or internalize it" if that would have made me stop and think.  Here I am, out of nursing school over 4 years and I still get irritated with patients and unfortunately have the "now I have to clean up the mess" mentality.  Last night I was in triage, and an older lady came stumbling in, she looked moderately wealthy, had her nails done, etc.  Anyways she came staggering in and when I asked her what brought her in she slurred "I am addicted to pain medications".  Turned out a few years back she had been diagnosed with a painful, non-life threatening disease, and was prescribed pain medication appropriately at that time, but did not take the medicine properly and soon became addicted to it and stated she has been addicted to it for the last few years.  Instead of just thinking "ok, whatever, those home fries were good for breakfast" blah de blah and going on my way I found myself thinking "great, now your bad decisions and poor judgment are my problem." 
      On a nightly basis ER nurses have to "deal" with the results of bad decisions, and that is part of the job, whether it is cleaning up pee, poo and vomit all night from someone that drank to much or in extreme cases wheeling someone to ICU or OR or putting someone in a body bag because of poor decisions, it ends up being our problem.  Maybe I should be in preventative nursing instead of tertiary nursing, teaching prevention and education vs. dealing with the poor decisions but I find myself thinking so often at work "this situation could have been avoided" and the "work smarter not harder" part of me throws a little tantrum.  I am still struggling with that aspect of the job and find myself telling myself a hundred times a night "why do you care?  Its no skin off your teeth" but the thing is I do care and I don't know if not caring is a good thing or a bad thing in this case.  Speaking of caring, lately I have adopted the phrase "nobody cares" as my motto and it is a good one for the ER even if it doesn't sound like it.  Let me explain.  It is better to think "nobody cares what you did or why you are in here, but you are here now and we are required to treat you", not "nobody cares about you".  It is not worth it to get involved emotionally or personally so just better to say "nobody cares" and just do your job.  I don't care what you do in your free time, how you live your life, what you ate for dinner, how many people you have killed or how much meth you just shot up in the parking lot, you are here now so we have to deal with it...and then going on and giving good nursing care.  Who knew all the internal struggles I would have while working in a field that goes directly against Darwinism?  Nobody cares... :)