peds nurse? maybe...

For those who do not know, I work on a progressive care unit. That's basically like an intensive care step down unit. These patients are not stable enough to go to a regular medical-surgical floor, but not critical enough to go to the ICU. Not everyone progresses through these "levels." Some go straight to ICU and are discharged (though most of the time they are transferred to my unit); some come straight to my unit and are discharged...sometimes a med-surg patient will go straight to the ICU. My floor deals with a lot of chest pain/heart attack patients in addition to congestive heart failure and patients with arrhythmias. We also get a lot of patients with respiratory distress, pneumonia, COPD, asthma exacerbation, renal failure, DKA, dehydration, electrolyte imbalances...you name it. The experience is invaluable.

Our crazy director (who no longer works with us) decided to start admitting pediatric patients to our unit. The unit isn't even meant for pediatric patients - it is not a locked unit and there is no play room for the kids to go to. The "designated" pediatric rooms have Wii's in them and we have things like coloring books and some toys, but that's about it. At first I thought a mixed pediatric/adult floor would be VERY unsafe, but it turns out those units are more common than I thought.

Nurses had the option to become a pedi nurse. We still have the option, but our manager made a point that they are making sure all new nurses that they hire now have at least some pediatric experience. As I think about my career, I think about how valuable this must be. What if I end up on another mixed unit in the future? What if I end up in an ER that takes kiddos in the future? I hated peds in nursing school - not because I hate kids. I like kids, I just feel so awkward around them. Peds was just boring in nursing school because we couldn't really do much. And after that I didn't really have an interest. I sort of through all of my peds knowledge out the window after I passed my NCLEX. Now I'm regretting it.

Anyway, I think I want to start taking peds patients. It would be a good resume builder and it would make me a better nurse, I think. I bought this book to review:



And so far I really like it! Schaum's has other guides for those interested. It isn't super in-depth; more like an outline, but still has a lot of valuable information. And I'm surprised at how much all of this stuff is coming back to me after a simple review!

One of the nurses I work with told me I won't ever have to worry about taking an unstable pediatric patient. There is a children's hospital about 25 minutes away where all of the unstable pediatric patients go. Most of the kids that come to my unit are admitted for dehydration, breathing problems (such as asthma exacerbation, bronchiolitis and RSV, especially now being RSV season), appys/tonsilectomies, cellulitis and for teenagers, UTIs and pyelonephritis. One thing I find really fascinating about peds are all of the congenital heart defects, but unfortunately we do not take those kinds of patients on my floor. Maybe some day.

Military Monday!

Be sure to link up at Semper Wifey's blog! :)

I hate coworkers who will say to you, "that's not patient" and therefore they won't help you. Nursing is a team effort. I try to pitch in and help those who are "not my patients" when I have the time. Not only will your fellow coworkers be thankful, it also earns you brownie points with your team and management. Not that I'm in for it for just brownie points. I truly enjoy helping others. Obviously, because I'm a nurse.

Work has been hell lately. We have one side where ALL of our totals as well as patients with sitters/in restraints are. I typically do my shifts in threes and of course I got stuck on that side for all 3 nights. I didn't really say anything except on my last night, telling the charge that side really needs to be split up. I mean, 3 out of my 4 patients were totals. It was awful. One night one kept climbing out of bed and became very agitated (and even a happy dose of Haldol only worked for about 30 minutes) and that went on until around 0500 when my "special bed" finally arrived (the other nights were fine thanks to my special bed :D)...my other patient down the hall was confused and kept pulling all of their wires off (thank goodness they didn't pull out my IV!)...and then of course my other patient was a 150kg bed-bound patient who can transfer from bed to chair (including a bedside commode) but decided they just wanted to lay in bed, oh, and they were going through a bowel prep...with a bleed. -_-

Speaking of bowel preps, I can't help but laugh at the names of those prep solutions. Especially "GoLytely." Seriously? haha.

Yesterday I took my ACLS course. For 10 hours. Normally they split the course up over 2 days - videos/teaching/practice and then the second day you do your skills test and written test. In this class we did the whole thing in one day. It was a very long day, but I passed my megacode and everything else and now I am ACLS-certified! Just don't go and expect me to run a code haha. Docs typically run them, anyway. By the time we find a patient and initiate CPR and get them hooked up to the crash cart, the ER doc is already in the room leading everything.

And I wish I didn't have to get recertified in BLS every 2 years now. They test you on BLS in ACLS, so having a BLS certification in addition to ACLS is kind of redundant, IMO. Oh well...

Next up is NRP (neonatal resucitation program) and PALS (pediatric advanced live support), even though I refuse to take kiddos on my unit.

instant nurse: just add coffee.

I'm starting my 3 night stretch tonight.
I hope work doesn't suck.
Some nurses left and now the ICU is expanding, so that takes away some nurses from my unit who want to work permanently in the ICU.
Which means we're becoming short-staffed.
I thought about picking up some OT shifts to help combat the short-staffedness, but I'm trying to think of a way to do it without burning myself out. After 3 nights in a row I'm dead...we'll see!

Not-so-fun adventures in the ER.

I got sent to the ER today. Myself and two other nurses from my unit...one who went MIA after a few hours. I think she got sent home. I also got sent home, but not until 0500. I'm hoping I don't get called off tonight, otherwise I'm going to volunteer to go to the ER again.

I was very disoriented. I have never been to the ER before and things are a lot different. For awhile I was just sitting around and I didn't know what to do, even after I kept telling the other nurses to tell me to do stuff because I'll do it. Then I got slammed with discharges. I have never discharged patients before (except in nursing school, like once or twice) but I handled them like a pro :)

And I had to deal with pedi patients!!! It wasn't as scary as I remember. One was so cute, and poor thing kept asking if I was going to stick her with a needle and got scared when I put gloves on...needless to say, no ouchies for her :)

Something upset me, though. We had a 27 year old, DOA (dead on arrival), CPR in progress. Already intubated. Once they got the the ER we continued CPR and pushed some drugs. The doc did an ultrasound which showed cardiac standstill. Patient's color looked awful - definitely cyanotic. We couldn't save them. Drug OD was suspected. It's just so sad, because this patient was very young, and a soldier too. I just don't see how anyone can just throw their life away like that. It bothered me, and it still does.

And things will bother you. That's a part of nursing. But you just have to learn to let it go.

song link-up!

It has been quite awhile since I have participated in Goodnight Moon's weekly What's Your Song? link-up!

This week is "Sleep On The Dance Floor" by The Postelles. This song makes me feel so light-hearted, I love it! Enjoy :)



I have to work tonight. I'm a little apprehensive after what happened Monday night, which was totally 100% *NOT* my fault. And I'm still pissed at that family. Long story short, one family member yelled at me and said, "I don't care if the patient next door is dying, our loved one could die too!" and um, the patient I was attending to was unstable. Their loved one was fine. It was pretty ridiculous, but I still maintained my composure and basically kissed their asses and did everything I possibly could to make them happy. Ugh.

Tomorrow night, however, is military ball! I am excited :) I'm just going to recycle the dress I wore to the military ball in April at Fort Leonard Wood.

And of course I work Saturday night, too :(

You know you've worked too many shifts in a row when...

1. It is now 5pm and your spouse is checking on you to make sure you are still alive.
2. You decide to sleep in the waiting room or the parking lot because you're unsafe to drive.
3. When you start thinking that the hospital food is actually pretty good, all things considered.
4. When you dream about work all day...WTH, I thought I left!
5. When you hardly remember the drive home.
6. When you start answering your phone as "[your unit], this is [your name], how may I help you?"
7. You fall asleep at a red light.
8. When you clock out and then get half way down the hall and you ask yourself, "did I clock out?" Then you turn around to go clock out, get half way back down the hall and you realize...you did clock out!
9. You get out to your car and realize you left your keys in your locker on the unit...
10. Absolutely NOTHING around you can beep/alarm in any way. It's like a nursing form of PTSD or something.
11. You end conversations with people by asking, "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

I have literally been a zombie this past week.
Went to work, had a decent shift...came home and couldn't sleep for the life of me. I finally did sleep, but only for about 3 hours...woke up by 1130 and just lazed around until 1900.
Had another decent shift. Came home, showered...the moment I rested my head on my pillow I passed out! Woke up at 1630 and then got a call from the nursing supervisor telling me she was going to put me on call that night!
I don't like being on call. You miss out on hours unless you actually get called into work. I thought I would get called in, but I never heard anything. Either that one particular physician was working that night (and he never admits anyone unless they're literally dying lol) or my floor just wasn't getting enough admissions for them to need me. Oh well.
Back to work tomorrow night.

I feel like this is all I do. Sleep, eat, work, rinse & repeat. The morning of (when I have already worked my 3 in a row) I sleep and then when I wake up I don't want to do a damn thing for the rest of the day because I am so tired.
And it really sucks being on opposite schedules with my husband. He's up doing PT and doing Army stuff while I'm sleeping. When I wake up he comes home and shortly after he'll take a nap -_- then it's off to work for me...And it's always the same. It really sucks.

friday fill-in & quick update

1. Have you (spouse) ever considered joining the military and what do you think of dual military couples?

I thought about it before I met my husband. I would join the Army or Navy to become a nurse. I also thought about it again once I married my husband. I think it's a really hard life for dual military couples. All of the training and deployments, I would feel like you would literally never see your significant other. Or do they do same deployments? Regardless, I think it's hard and not something I could do, I don't think. And my husband said he wouldn't let me join even if I wanted to haha.

2. What is your idea of a perfect Sunday afternoon?

Depends on my mood. Sometimes it's just lazing around, cuddling and playing video games with hubby or lazing around by the pool lol. Either way, I prefer my Sunday afternoons to be relaxing.

3. What do you usually do for the 4th of July holiday?

That also depends...when I was younger, we would always set off fireworks in a drive way. Since then I usually go to whatever 4th of July event that is going on in the area. This year we're planning on going to San Antonio :)

4. If they could make an Olympic even JUST for you that you know you'd medal in, what would it be?

Lol oh I don't know...Facebook/Twitter-stalking? hahaha

5. What have you been doing to get yourself bathing-suit ready for summer?

Honestly, nothing...I know it's really bad, but I never really work out. I consider my "work out" at work because usually I'm always running around like a maniac. I also literally eat like a bird...but that's just me.

And speaking of work, I LOVE MY JOB!

There are a lot of things that I do not know. Even the simplest things...like how to work the dynamap, the IV pumps, and even the IV insertion catheters because everything is DIFFERENT from what I have been used to working with for the past 3 1/2 years! And I did not know that you could put Nitrobid on the leg. I thought that stuff (and patches) always went on the upper body while rotating sites.

The charting is such a bear but I'm getting the hang of it...doctors still scare the crap out of me and a lot of times I'm unsure of when I should be bothering them. They don't really teach you this stuff in nursing school - we were never allowed to put orders in, talk to docs on the phone and take orders, call lab, pharmacy, do this and that and blah blah blah.

The first night I had to send one of our patients off to ICU. My preceptor was on the phone giving report to the ICU nurse when the doc calls, so I had to take the call. I explained what happened and what I did, and first he said I did a good job and did everything right, which made me have "warm fuzzies" (as my NCLEX class instructor would say)...but then it is just trying to figure out what else he wanted lol. My preceptor was helping me out, but it still made me nervous.

Last night was SLOOOOOOOOW. Painfully slow. The census has been low lately, and I'm assuming it is because of the upcoming Independence Day (census is always low on holidays!) I was floated to TCU and including myself, there were 4 nurses with 6 patients, but there were 2 orientee RN's. I took care of one patient in her entirety (the previous night was just assessments and documentation) but this patient was such a breeze. Completely ambulatory and only had like 3 meds.

I'm back again tonight, this time either on my home unit or ICU. Hopefully it goes smoothly like the last two nights :)

Then it's off to San Antonio after I get some sleep, yay!

blog hop!

So even though I bought a car, it still isn't here yet. It was supposed to be here last Monday, but I guess it didn't get on the truck until the middle of the week. The car is coming from a port in Houston, but then VW told me there is no way to determine the route the truck will make. Even though Houston is only about 3 hours away, the truck could go to Dallas, then SA, to El Paso (which is like freaking' 7 hours away) and all of these other places until it comes to Killeen. Hubby called on Friday and was told the car would either be in on Saturday (which it wasn't) or today. I'm hoping today.

I had my nursing orientation last week, too! Some of the nurses have been in the profession for 15+ years, others have been in for a year or so, and then there was me, the new grad lol. Everyone was very nice and five of us (including myself) will be working together. Sort of. There are three of us on PGCU - one is on nights with me and the other girl (whom I love and is a fellow Army wife!) is working days. Another girl is on days in the ICU and a guy is on nights in the TCU. The TCU and PGCU are virtually the same thing and we are also cross-trained to work in the ICU, as well. My first night will be on the 29th - I'm excited but I'm also scared shitless lol. This will be my first time on the floor as an RN. I'm not quite sure what to expect that night. I just hope my preceptor is patient with me, because apparently real-world nursing is totally different from nursing school.

And it makes me feel good that my fellow night-shifters said they will help me out whenever I need it. They said I will be fine and I will get it eventually, it will just take time. No one will leave me to fend for myself lol!

Last night hubby and I were making chili. We wanted to throw a whole habanero in - seeds, vein and all! So I started to mince it, gently. And then of course, the knife some how flicks a seed that hits me straight in the eye! I screamed some profanities and stumbled around, and hubby rushed over to see what happened. I was about to rub my eyes when he stopped me, then he guided me over to the tub and instructed me to flush my eye out in the cool running water. I was there for about 20 minutes. It was agonizing. I have even more respect for soldiers/civilian police who have to get OC sprayed for training. Hubby's BOLC class all got OC'ed the second time I went to FLW. I felt really bad for them there. Mind you, habanero peppers range from 150,000 - 350,000 SHU, or Scoville Heat Units. OC spray is much more potent, starting out at 1,000,000+ SHUs. Although the burn from the habanero was agonizing, I can only imagine what the OC spray is like. I don't wish that feeling on anyone.

But now I have to just look back and laugh, because this would only happen to me haha.

milball dresses and more wedding stuff

As much as I didn't want to spend money on a floor-length dress for the upcoming military ball because this wedding continues to be expensive *and* I have to do some mandatory repairs on my car which will probably total to $1200...I understand that I have to maintain the car but why the hell does everything have to happen all at once? But anyway, I thought a floor-length gown would be more appropriate for a "ball" anyway so I decided to buy one. And the dress was under $100 which was a huge plus for me. I ended up buying this one:

the halter clasp on this particular one was broken so that's why I'm holding it up so I don't flash all of you haha.

I think the dress is very flattering on me and like I said, it was under $100 on sale :) These pictures make it appear more blue but it is slightly more purple. The other dress I was considering was this one:

$10 more, I loved the color (slightly brighter blue than this picture depicts) and I love the single strap but I wasn't too crazy about all of that frilliness on that strap. So I went with the purple one instead :)

I also met with the church organist and chose music for the wedding ceremony. We have to use the organist, so that limits me in my music choice. But here is what I chose:

seating of the mothers: Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring by Bach

bridesmaids processional: Grazioso by Telemann. I listened to some recordings on youtube of this and I actually didn't like it. It sounds so much better on an organ.

wedding march: Trumpet Voluntary by Clarke. This is the same wedding march Princess Diana used :)

recessional: Rondeau by Mouret

That's another thing I can cross off my list :)

The bakery quoted me on the price for marzipan calla lilies on my cake...freakin' $185. ON TOP OF an already $500-$600 wedding cake. I feel bad for declining because I know they worked with it in the shop for awhile to make sure it was doable, so I feel like their efforts would be wasted...but that's a lot of freakin money just for some flowers. I thought about doing a mix of buttercream callas and marzipan but I don't know how well that's going to look. I don't know what to do, ahhhh!

The necklaces for my bridesmaids came in today, too :)

Not the best picture but I didn't want to take it out of the bag and (wo)man handle it before the wedding lol.

So finally that's another thing I can cross off! Their jewelry is on me...but I don't know if I should get them another gift as well? I would love to at least buy mani/pedis for them but that's going to be expensive as well and I only have a few more weeks left to work...so I won't have my own income any more :(

I also got offered an interview for an ICU internship at a level 1 trauma center! But I had to regretfully decline it, and the hiring manager totally understood. He believes in honesty, and he told me that if I were to get hired in another position in the hospital, all I would have to do is wait 6 months and then I can transfer into an internship. They have another one that starts in January and he said my chances are a lot better to get into that one than the one that starts in June. I would have to fly down for the interview, too. I looked up flights to Texas and they average around $500...so really, he was telling me to not waste my money and just wait lol. I'm hoping I'll get more calls in the future. I sent in a lottttt of apps! keeping my fingers crossed :)

I am a REGISTERED NURSE!!

That explains why I've been on a mini hiatus :)

I took my NCLEX on Monday morning and I'm not going to lie, I thought the test was AWFUL. I studied SO MUCH from the time I finished my NCLEX course until the time I took the test, and to me the NCLEX was a mind game! I left the testing center certain that I failed. I wanted to cry.

There is a thing you can do called a Pearson Vue Trick, or PVT. After you take the exam, go home and log into Pearson Vue and try to register for the NCLEX again. There is a "good" pop up and a "bad" pop up. The "good" pop up says something like "Our records state you have recently scheduled this exam. Please contact your board of nursing for further details. Another registration cannot be made at this time." That supposedly means you passed. The "bad" pop up takes you straight to the credit card page, which supposedly means you did not pass. The page has to say "delivery successful" before you can try the trick.

Waiting for it to say "delivery successful" was maybe only about 30min, but it was an agonizing wait. When the status changed, I went into sympathetic nervous system overdrive!!! But I got the good pop-up!! The PVT is said to be 99% accurate, but I still wasn't convinced.

Pearson Vue also gives you your "unofficial" quick results, which are still accurate, 48 hours after you test. The only reason why it is "unofficial" is because Pearson Vue doesn't actually issue the license - the BON does, and sometimes the BON is slow with updating their records. Not all states participate in quick results. Thankfully Texas does. I just got my unofficial results and I passed!!!! I am an RN, FINALLY!!! Those dog days are over ;)

Aside from studying my butt off the NCLEX, I was also busy with some other things as well:

1. I met with some friends from the sorority I used to belong to - they are my "family" (my big, my grandbig, and my twin) and we ate at Rocknes. It was really nice to be able to catch up with them :)

2. Saturday I met with the church pastor to discuss ceremony stuff. I also told him that E and I already got legally married in December, but we decided to keep it quiet from pretty much everyone except for our parents and some friends. I was afraid that would change something, but he said that's fine - he usually has at least one couple/year who does this and they are military :) So that made me feel better! He said they will just make some subtle changes in the actual ceremony, but nothing really noticeable. The vows will sort of be like a renewal (saying that we will CONTINUE to promise, etc etc etc).

3. Mama bear and myself spent Monday addressing, stuffing and stamping all of those invitations. That took FOREVERRR. I never want to do that again. If I have a daughter, I'm telling her she's on her own with her invitations lol (probably not). We mailed them out on Tuesday :)

This Friday I am meeting with my florist at the church to discuss options on decorating, as well as for the bouquets and boutonnieres. I just hope she does not go into anaphylactic shock on me!!

She has a problem, and docs can't figure it out. Between January and now, she has gone into anaphylactic shock at least 11 times and has been in and out of the hospital. They can't isolate the cause. It's so bad that she'll be driving and then she'll stop breathing. My big from my sorority and this girl are best friends which is how I know her. My big was explaining to me that doctors are trying to rule some stuff out...and she couldn't remember what they were trying to rule out, but if it is what the doctors think it is, then this girl probably won't live past 30. She's like my age. We're hoping it isn't that, but regardless, it doesn't seem good. The doctors suspect it is some sort of autoimmune reaction that is causing her to go into anaphylactic shock so many times...it is just so strange.

Some big things I can cross off on my list of shit to do. now I can focus more on wedding planning, as well as working on my resume! And so the job hunt begins!

:)

Military Monday Bloghop! and Miscellaneous Monday

1. I finally caved in and took the Texas Nursing Jurisprudence Exam. It's a requirement for licensure in Texas. I could have taken it any time but I will not receive my license until I do. It seemed very intimidating because there was a "study guide" page with lotsssss of information. You have 2 hours to take it, there are 50 questions, and you're allowed to have other windows open and use the BON to look up answers. If you fail, you can take it again but have to wait 7 days.

It was all about nursing law, the NPA, board rules, etc.

Some of it was blatantly obvious. Like for example:

As a nurse, which of the following should you NOT do?

A. feed your patient lunch

B. dispense medications

C. kill your patient.

...okay not QUITE but you get the idea. Others were tricky. It took me nearly 2 hours, but I passed! One more thing I can cross off the list. Now I just need to take and pass that damn NCLEX! :)

2. We had some crazy thunderstorms last night. I love storms, but not when they rob me of my sleep. I'm working 12 hours today, which I haven't done in awhile (11a-11p)...either it won't be too bad or it's going to suck. Either way, I'm really tired.

The past 2 times I worked wasn't bad at all. I got floated to the overflow med-surg unit (which is located on the ICU stepdown but of course the overflow and stepdown don't "mix" with each other...unless you walk by and see a patient climbing out of bed or something lol). The overflow has 8 beds and usually 2 licenses (at least one RN, obviously) and usually a support. A majority of the patients were ambulatory. By the end of the evening, we had 5 patients. There was only one patient who was kind of a problem (he was climbing out of bed *AND* at the very end of the hall...I suggested moving him closer to the makeshift "nurses station" that way they could keep a closer watch on him instead of making him a sitter. It was such a long walk down to that room lol). Overall, I did some vitals...helped someone to the bathroom...pulled out some heplocks...ran some 24hr pee to the lab...and that's it. Most of it was sitting and BS'ing with the nurses lol.

Saturday I only worked 4 hours and got floated to sit with a patient, who fell, broke her hip, had it repaired, and is confused. She was a handful. Her family was very nice. The last hour was the worst, though. Very confused. Kept saying she had to go home and tend to her kids and dogs and if I called her neighbors, they can bring her keys so that she could go home and drive, etc etc. Kept trying to get out of that chair to leave. I kept advising her not to bend over because of her hip (and she was very well approaching that over 90-degree mark!) but like that did anything. She is also borderline. I kept reorienting her and trying to empathize with her her frustration for wanting to go home but can't and at one point she said to me, "you can either do one of two things. you can either SHUT UP or help me get out of here." She then apologized, but still asked me to help her get home.

Finally she decided she wanted to go on the "couch" (her bed) so I had the RN and the aide who was replacing me help her back. It took us about 20 minutes (all she had to do was take a few steps) but we finally did it, and then she started to settle down...except for screaming at the other aide telling her to "stop making so much damn noise and turn those damn lights off because I'M TRYING TO SLEEP!" and then telling her she had a pretty outfit. lol. Never worked with a borderline patient before. They can be quite a challenge.

3. I'm almost hoping I can sit again with a patient (I don't care if I'm sitting for 12 hours!) so I can get some studying done. It's crunch time! I need to pass my NCLEX on the 1st try! Everyone else I talked to passed. And I keep reading about people on allnurses.com failing 2, 3, 4, 5 and even *6* times. That makes me nervous.

4. My enhancer for my engagement ring still hasn't come in yet. Jared's told me early February. I'm getting nervous that it won't be here on time for the formal wedding!

5. I finally decided to change my earrings yesterday. I bought some cute black/silver/grey dangly ones for $4.99 at Target lol...so I went home and wanted to try them on. The earrings I had on were very comfortable, but the back isn't like your standard earring back (with that funny looking stopper to go on the post). I was able to get the right one off pretty easily but the left one was jammed in there - I thought I was going to tear my ear lobe! I definitely hurt my ear a bit trying to get that one off. I decided to not put those back in for fear of having a hard time getting them back off so I just stick in some princess cut cubic zirconia posts instead :)

kusudama and work...

I was browsing on random websites yesterday and came across kusudama, a type of Japanese modular origami that usually takes folded pieces of paper with the same geometric shape and they're taped/glued/sewn together into a sphere, kind of like this:

I thought it was interesting, so I learned how to make the flower. It was actually very easy, but somewhat time consuming. I used computer paper and had to tear them into square pieces. I used 5 pieces of paper and then taped them all together with medical tape lol. It is nowhere near perfect, but here is what mine looked like:

Then I was looking to see if you can make them into flower arrangements, instead of the traditional spherical arrangement, and sure enough you can!

Red/white arrangement

Pink/blue flowers

White flowers

I think these are so cool! and different and unique. I'm thinking about making these into centerpieces for the reception. It would be a lot cheaper than using fresh or even flake flowers to decorate...all I would have to do is buy some nice paper, buy some green wire or something else for the stem, maybe a spool of ribbon to wrap around the stems and maybe some pearl/rhinestones to either jazz up the petals or put in the center of each flower. And borrow a glue gun. and buy some pretty vases, which I can get for cheap at Michael's/Pat Catan's/Dollar Tree. And maybe some purple pebbles to go at the bottom of each vase. Probably be about $30 for all of them vs. $100's for fake/fresh flowers. The Galaxy already has squared or round mirrored glass that I could use. Maybe I'll put a couple of votives around the glass. And my MIL already bought ivory petals with our names and date embossed on them in purple writing. That + purple fake petals sprinkled around the table and cake table would look really nice, too.

The Galaxy has these brass lamps that they would use to decorate the tables, but honestly I wasn't too crazy about them. I'd rather use this idea. Or I could go with the very easy bowl of water, floating tea lights, colored marbles/pebbles at the bottom and put the bowl on mirrored glass with some flower petals sprinkled around. I like the first idea better. I'm not crafty, but I'd like to do something different. And these flowers aren't hard to make, they just take some time.

and a vent about work last night:

1) I hate how the dayshift NA's literally "pick and choose" who they want to bathe. we occasionally get bariatric patients on our floor and who do they always leave for evening/night shift to bathe? them. Now I don't mind giving bed baths/doing AM care. That's part of the job of an NA/tech and yes even RN's/LPN's too but 99% of the time the nurses on my floor has help from supports so of course they will be delegated. What I DO mind is when they pick and choose. They can't do that. YOUR JOB in the morning is to get vitals Q4H and to get patients up and ready for the day. Yes, I know sometimes the shift can get crazy and you can't get the whole floor done and I know some patients are off for tests all day or refuse to do anything. Well this patient yesterday told me she has been asking all day to get cleaned up, but of course the dayshift NA's didn't want to do it. They usually have more supports for day shift (a lot of times 3!) and for evenings 1-2 and for nights, lately it's been none. One of the RN's who now took a full-time position on our floor (and yay, because I love her!) asked me how long this has been going on and I told her for awhile...and she said that myself or the CN or someone should write them up for that, because they are NA's, and they can't be delegating stuff to me. which is true.

2) ...and of course while Shannon and I were in the middle of bathing this patient, I had to leave the room to grab some stuff and immediately one of the RN's asked me to get a blood sugar on this patient because she had to go call the doctor. I wouldn't have minded if I wasn't already in the middle of the something, but I was kind of annoyed because she was basically asking me to drop everything that I was doing just to get her blood sugar. Yes, she had to call the doctor. But yes, there were other RN's who are also capable of getting blood sugars that weren't busy, so why couldn't she ask them?

Other than that, work was fine yesterday. I successfully started another IV! I'll take all of the practice I can get :)

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Last night was Linda's going away party. She is one of the RN's I work with and is leaving our unit to become a PCC (patient care coordinator) on a psych floor at a hospital literally across the street from us lol. Same company. I'm happy for her, but I'll miss her, because she is one of my favorite dayshift RN's (there are only a few haha). Anyway, one our nursing assistants organized it for her at Stonehedge, which is a bowling alley. We went in the back at this large table to order food and talk. I loved how day shifters sat on one end of the table, Shannon & I were kind of in the middle (we primarily work evenings, 3-11) and then night shifters were at the other end lol. People talked about drama, which I tried to stay out of; then Danielle, Jessica, Steve, David (all RN's), Shannon & myself decided we were going to go play some pool.

But they didn't have any pool. So we just sat at the bar instead.

And they discovered my embarrassing trait - I turn BRIGHT red when I drink. Not just a "little" red, because I know a lot of people turn red. I turn obnoxiously red. and from very small amounts of alcohol, too. I'll have a few sips of whatever and I'll start to turn red. And you can indicate how much I've had by looking at my face! It starts at the top of my forehead and starts making it's way down lol.

I also get a little "puffy" too haha.

The reason why I turn so red is because I'm 50% Chinese, and Asian people lack an enzyme to properly digest the ETOH (or alcohol, if you will). My dad was the same way, my brother is the same way and all of my Asian friends are the same way. But no one is bad as me!

Anyway, I drank half of Danielle's Mongolian Motherfucker (her and Jessica are such enablers! Jessica kept passing her's off to me too lol). I don't know what it's in it because there are like 8 different liquors but it seriously tastes just like fruit punch.

We hung out at the bar for awhile then decided we were going to go bowling, but then we met up with the other day shifters and they decided they were all leaving, so we decided to go to a bar down in The Valley instead. The bar we went to reminded me of my favorite bar in Canton called Fiddlestix (though Fiddlestix is a lot cooler :)). It was all of us + Jessica's brother and sister decided to come out. We had a fun, fun time! I haven't had that much in awhile! I drank a Leinenkugel Berry Weiss (one of my favorite beers!), Jessica bought a round of cherry bombs (which were NASTY, tasted just like cherry Robitussen...ick! I couldn't finish all of it), then had two large amaretto sours. That is A LOT of alcohol for 5'2", 110lb, 1/2 Chinese tiny little me, but I lived haha. I rarely go out and drink anyways.

This is going to have to happen more often, though :)

Jessica & Danielle want to have a fake bachelorette party and hit up the bars in Cleveland (because you get free drinks) but I'll be back in Missouri during that time spending sweet, sweet time with the hubby :) I can't wait!

work work work. I feel like that is all I ever do! Lately I've been annoyed, though. I always seem like I'm annoyed and it seems like I complain about my job way too much, but in reality, I love my job! It's just the people I work with sometimes.

I was on my unit on Tuesday, and it wasn't too bad, but we had some incontinent patients who were a "two person job." We'd clean them up and then they would be dirty again...so we'd clean them up again. I was in a room with an NA and the door was closed. This old, seasoned RN took the TIME to FIND ME, tell me "can you get a blood sugar on the two new patients that came in? oh, and weights and vitals." I told her it would be awhile and then said to me, "well, we need you over there, not over here - tell those other nurses to get off their asses instead of sitting at the nurses station." (my floor is a long hallway and when there are two of us we just split it in half). If it was so important, why don't you just do it yourself? You took the time to find me, so you obviously had enough time to get your own damn blood sugars. and weights. and vital signs. We aren't even supposed to get any of the admission stuff because it is an ADMISSION and that is the RN's responsibility, but they take advantage of us all of the time. Even if the RN is going into the room right away, they'll still delegate the vitals. It just makes me mad because it seems like getting vitals is so "taboo" for a lot of nurses.

This RN didn't do any of her admission paperwork. Nothing. This was at 6:40pm, so yes, close to shift change, but she had time. And those patients came while she was still on the clock, so they were her responsibility. The oncoming night shifters were pretty pissed off about that. I would have been, too.

Last night the tech who I have talked about in my previous posts came on at 11pm, right when I was leaving. She was being all snobby as usual. She was trying to get hired on my roommate's floor but the nurses have the final say because they conduct a staff interview. No one wants to hire her. In fact, they kept asking my roommate if I needed a job instead haha. I wish I could take them up on that offer.

Last night a family member told me "I would like to hold all breathing treatments for the rest of the night. I think his stomach is more of a priority than his breathing." Are you fucking kidding me? Thank goodness this didn't come from an RN/LPN/MD...I would be scared. I just went along with it, because I knew if I tried explaining she wouldn't listen to me.

Oh, and a call light kept going off in a room that was unoccupied. creepy...

I had to work last night, 3-11p. It's always hard to go back to work when you've had like a week off! Overall it was a decent evening. I ended up sitting the last 4 hours of my shift. Why is it that they have tiny little girls like me sit with the DT'ers? Overall the patient wasn't too bad - just a few anger episodes but thankfully he didn't get combative.

Some people that I work with at times I just don't like. One of the girls I graduated with (and I don't like her, at all, for various reasons) was sitting with the patient I sat with last night. At around 6:30pm she came up to me and said "umm, are one of you coming to relieve me at 7?" and I told her I was, then she told me "k, because I normally clock out right at 7." I told her I would be in there as soon as I could.

I started 7pm vitals because I didn't want the other nursing assistant to be on the floor by himself doing them. I got through half of one side and then hastily put the vitals in the computer. It was close to 7, and this girl pops her head out and asks,

"Melissa, can you come in now?"

"I will be there in a minute, I am putting in vitals and I only have a three more to do." (I admit, I was kind of bitchy about it haha)

"Okay well I don't want to get penalized or anything...."

"I am almost done, you can wait another minute, and I'll be there as soon as I can."

I got in, she apologized for trying not to "rush" me but she didn't want to get penalized. She told me that if you don't stay until 7:25pm, you will get penalized because you only have 5 minutes before and after to clock in/out. I told her technically by right, you are supposed to stay here until 7:25pm to cover for the oncoming shift. She told me "well my manager doesn't enforce that rule." Bullshit.

This is the same girl who told my roommate, "I can't wait to be a nurse so that I don't have to clean people up or do this shit anymore."

Another nurse, who was an LPN turned RN, kind of rubs me the wrong way, too. She's just not that nice. And what really pissed me off was around 6:45pm, a bed alarm was going off, so there was a patient somewhere trying to climb out of bed. I was talking to my roommate and we went to go investigate when we heard the alarm. This RN was standing right outside of the room on her COW (computer of wheels) and said "Oh she's probably just trying to get out of bed again" while Candice & I rush in there. Patient was already up and around, thankfully not on the floor and didn't hurt herself in any way. What ever happened to SAFETY being a priority (considering the fact that physiological needs are met)? Ugh.

I have to go back to work today, but thankfully only 3-7pm. I'm just not looking forward to driving! The roads were terrible on my way home last night - very slick, and for awhile I couldn't see shit because the moment rain hit my windshield, it froze.

Now I'm looking outside my window and it's a total white-out!!

Yesterday at work (for the mere 4 hours I was there lol) we just got a fresh post-op GSW to the face. He had a trach with a ballard suctioning system, which is basically an enclosed suctioning device. They're nice (and save time!) because since it is enclosed, it is sterile and non-sterile gloves aren't going to break the sterile field. This also means you don't have to bring in a new sterile suctioning kit every time you want to suction someone.

The seasoned RN, who works on an orthopedic floor, has never seen these before or worked with them. I got to do my teaching moment by showing her how to use it. I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks, though it must have been embarrassing for her because the family members were in the room. Generally people look up to RN's as the "know-it-all" people - and my badge definitely does not say "RN" in big black bold letters.

rant about my coworker...

Okay so the second to last time I was on my floor, it was pretty busy. I admit, the charge nurse didn't assign patients the way she should have. One of the RN's had 2 patients the entire day while the CN had 5. She was complaining that she was very stressed out and didn't have time for a break. In that case, you shouldn't have given yourself so many patients while the other RN's were waiting! That was an error on her part.

I do like working with this nurse, however. She always has "fun" things for me to do - blood draws, dressing changes, wound cultures, etc. That is the main reason why I wanted this job was to get EXPERIENCE in things like that. Half of the time I feel like I'm a "glorified" nursing assistant. The one nurse who had 2 patients kept telling me not to help the CN and that they needed help on the other hand. There was another aide on the other side and he immediately got talked to when he went down to my side to answer a call light, being told NOT to go down to my side and that they needed him on their side. You have *2* patients.

The CN came up to me and told me to do a dressing change (although simple - xenaderm then apply mesalt to the area), get wound cultures on her big toe and then wrap the toe. Right after she told me that, the RN with 2 patients got a new admit. She came up to me and said, "hey, can you get vitals on this patient?" I looked at her because I was on my way to the other pt with all of the dressing supplies and wound culture swabs in my hand, and without me saying a word the RN said, "by the way, that trumps what the CN said. go get vitals."

That pissed me off. What pissed me off even more is that my roommate is a new RN at the hospital I work at. She is currently going through her orientation and yesterday they were going through a list of what techs can and cannot do. One of the things we ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO DO is get vitals on a new admit, because vitals are part of an assessment and that is the RN's job. I get them anyway, but I just think it was really rude for that nurse to say that.

Ever since then she has rubbed me off the wrong way. I worked with her again yesterday but pretty much ignored her lol...because she is orienting a new grad and she is to the point where the new grad has taken over care and this nurse just sort of oversees it - so every time I had to report something, I went to the new grad.

Some nurses are appreciative of my work; others are like "go do this. go do that." I am *ONE* person - I cannot be in all of these places at once. I don't seem to get this from the nurses in the MSICU or ICU stepdown that I tend to float to a lot.

I have to go back to work today, but only for four hours. That's the nice thing about being a tech - we can come in for shifts like that or come in at odd times if we have class or something (one time I came in from 5-11).

I also just got my course information for peds (but of course nothing else for the others). Seems like a lot of busy work to me!!

I CANNOT believe that I am going back to school in a week! I am very excited, but I think that's because I just want to be done!!

In the meantime, I have just been enjoying time off as well as working as much as I can before school starts because once that happens, I won't be able to work nearly as much. I have been floating a lot to my hospital's ICU stepdown unit which I LOVE. The nurses on my home floor treat me well, but the nurses on the stepdown treat me even better. I just love the whole nature of the floor and the fact that it is still critical care also makes me really happy because that's what I want to do when I graduate! Unfortunately the floor isn't hiring despite the fact a full-timer quit and a part-timer just put in their 2 week notice to quit...but they keep calling me to come in so they obviously must like me :)

For those who don't know, the ICU is for the critically-ill patients. You get patients with traumas (MVA's, GSW's, impalements, etc...generally those go to the SICU, or surgical ICU) as well those with critical diagnoses, such as ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome) which generally leads to intubation and having the patient on a ventilator, drug OD's/toxicities, DIC, DKA, TBI's, etc...when the patient gets better, but still needs close monitoring, they go to the stepdown unit. Sometimes you will still see ventilators, but generally patients who have trachs that are hooked up to them. Everyone is still on telemetry. You will still see things like DKA, respiratory problems, cardiac problems, guillan barre, etc. Patients aren't sedated in the stepdown like they are in the ICU. Once they get better, they are then d/c'ed to a general medical floor. It is truly amazing to see patients get better :)