Hospital Life

I had my first day off orientation at the hospital on Sunday. I think everything went fairly well, although the floor was pretty busy (but not crazy). We started out with 20 patients on the floor at the beginning of the shift and were down to 9 at the end, and that's with several admissions along with all the discharges. Like I said, it makes for a busy day. 

For my hospital friends, I'd like to give a few details about this unit, so for those of you who don't care so much about that kind of thing, feel free to skip this part! 

Big difference; I was struck on my first visit to the unit just how quite and peaceful everything seemed. I remember thinking, "where is everybody?" as I looked down the hall and saw no one. And the unit was mostly full. Not at all what I have been use to over the last 7 years! After seeing more, I think the main reason may be the fact that they are not a teaching hospital (meaning, no nursing students, no medical students, no residents, no respiratory students or any others). That alone cuts down on SO MANY people! Big difference, let me tell you. Please don't take this the wrong way! I am not at all saying students are bad or I wish they weren't there, it's just a completely different environment. I actually miss the residents just a little bit. :)

Small(er) differences: not as obvious, but still significant; the charge nurse is always, always out of staffing. And they help. A lot. At least for me, still being new I had lots of questions and she was always available to answer or help with procedures. And she answered call lights (actually going to the room to get the things they asked for, not just pushing the 'answer' button), and reset IVs, and relieved people so they could go to lunch and probably lots more I'm not including. The patient acuity doesn't seem to be as high right now either (lots of respiratory/RSV), but that could just be circumstantial since I've only been on the floor for 3 shifts. The nurses each take 3-5 patients typically, but that is about what I have been used to. There are 1-2 nurse aides on the floor (depending on the amount of patients), but they don't do as much as I'm use to. They stock sometimes (other times the volunteers stock), do vital signs (by the way, they only to blood pressures once per shift), daily weights, patient care (baths, bed changes), but they don't do I+O's (intake and output) at all. And I have found myself doing more of the "little things" that I was so used to my aides doing. I think I was spoiled! Thank you to my aides who do so much! I didn't know what I had until it was gone *sigh!*, 

Something they do that I really like; when an admission is coming, the charge nurse gets the call then fills out a small slip of paper saying the patient's name, age, doctor, reason for admit, bed type (bed, crib, bassinet, canopy crib), any isolation needed, and maybe a few other things I can't think of at the moment. But how cool is that?! She came to me and gave me the paper, and one to the aide and one to the desk person so everyone has all the information available. I felt like it really helped with communication and getting everything set up for the patient before they arrived, making for a smoother admission. 

I could go on more, but I'll stop with the boring details for now and instead show you a video of Eli painting! He has unique brush techniques, including using the other end of the paintbrush, as demonstrated below. He's saying, "rub it," and "chop, chop." 

To finish this post, here are some pictures I took while I was getting ready in the morning. Eli likes to 'get ready' too!

He has on one of my headbands and is brushing and combing (at the same time) his stuffed puppy. Later, puppy also got a headband. Eli was pretty pleased with himself!