A day in the life of a medsurg nurse—

 

Clock in. Get report. Bad report. One with chest pain, one COPD exacerbation, one is confused, one is possibly septic, the last one is a drug seeker, he’s clock watching for his next dose of dilaudid. Pull medications one by one from the Pyxis. IV vanco is not here. Put in message to pharmacy. Out of lisinopril on this side, walk to other side to get from other Pyxis. Someone is already using it. Ok I guess I’ll wait. *Phone rings* it’s patient 4’s granddaughter. She doesn’t have the PIN number. Crap, where’s the chart. Hold please. Her name is not on the patients chart to release information to. Family member yells  and hangs up. Ok, still need that lisinopril from the other Pyxis. Ok let’s get started passing meds. Room 1. Walk in room, greet patient, Start scanning meds, I still need that vanco, where is the vanco? Call pharmacy. Secretary calls in to room as I scan medications. “room 2 is going down for a scan and needs to be unhooked from the IV.” Ok be right back. Unhook patient. He has to go to the bathroom. Walk him to bathroom because he is an unsteady, elderly man. He goes down for the CT.  Ok what now? Vanco. Finally it came up—back to room 1. Flush IV. Patient screams out in pain. Great, IV is infiltrated. Let me go get an IV kit, be right back. *Phone rings* it’s the secretary “room 5 is asking for pain medication.” Crap. “Ok thank you.” Remove pain medication from Pyxis. Need another nurse to waste this. Look down hallway for another nurse... *crickets*. Ok I’ll waste later.  Room 5 is a talker, get stuck in there. *Phone rings* urology was consulted on room 4 and he wants to know why. Ok what now, room 1 still needs an IV for their antibiotics. I have to pee, I’ll pee later. Still have 3 med passes to finish. Go to room 4, confused lady in her late 80s. Lord this lady takes a lot of medications. Start scanning some of the 20 medications. What was her blood pressure again? Great, PCT hasn’t documented the updated one. Where is pct? Patient is agitated—“I really need to get up and get dressed because I have to go to work” she tells me. Oh my goodness I do not have time for this right now. *phone rings* it’s the son of room 4, his daughter called earlier but he has the patients PIN and he wants to know every single thing about his mom including her labs, tests, and medications. Definitely don’t have time for this. Still have to pee. Will pee later. *phone rings* it’s monitor bank, “patient in room 3 just had 13 beats of wide complex tach.” Of course they did. Ok let me check on this patient. Get vitals, check labs, patient is asymptotic. Good. Ok let me get their medications. Log on to computer. So many orders. Stat meds to give to 4, great I was just in there. Orders for room 1 to get a cardiac cath, have to get those consents signed. *phone rings* it’s MRI they want to know when I’m going to do the MRI checklist so they can come get the patient. Ok add that to the list. Still need to give room 3 their morning meds, 5 wants to talk to me, need consents signed, still have to pee. *phone rings* “patient 1 is asking for some Zofran.” Ok zofran. Great, there’s no order. Let me call the paging operator to get the doctor. Who’s the doctor again? Ok I need that MRI check list. Patient 5 still needs to see me, let me see what he wants. PCT tells me 4 is getting increasingly agitated and is trying to get out of bed. Still have to pee. It’s ok, the day is almost over—just kidding it’s only 11 o clock. Almost time for 12 o clock med pass, maybe I can get some charting done. Wait no, still have to do MRI check list, and the charge nurse just told me the admission assessment was never done for patient 3. Add to list. Still need consents signed too. Stat blood work put in for 4 also. Patient 1 still waiting for zofran, let me page the doctor again. *phone rings* it’s the lab “we have a critical lab value on patient 2.” Wonderful 🤦🏻‍♀️.  PCT walks by “5 wants his pain medication.” *RN bangs head against the wall* Not really, she puts on her cape because she is superwoman obviously...

-Olivia Nelson

 

(Retrieved from a FaceBook Group: Show me your Stethoscope: @: https://www.facebook.com/showmeyourstethoscopepage/?eid=ARDKIyvJztISpafiJgiOtFCghHaENmJfW-MIsEZTdhCLuAXNISWOqx1HKjBbbxdMy95gjHhuNruXNzGt

​