What I find challenging about the nursing profession is, apart from dealing with the patients and their relatives, is knowing the disease and the disease process. What are the symptoms and how to deal with it. A lot of patients do not throw questions at the doctors as they seem to be intimidated. So as soon as the doctor steps out of the patient’s room, the patients and relatives begin to bombard you with questions regarding the patient’s confiment.
Since I am just new to this profession, I really find it hard to answer most of their questions that is why I always tell myself to find time researching. As much as I want to dedicate some time to it, my physical and mental strength are always drained right before I punch out. I almost always miss my bus stop especially when I came from PM shift.
I wish I could squeeze in the research task. I have to. I am planning to take my master’s degree so I need to improve my pacing.

I was really pleased by the turn out of my shift. Although it was pretty toxic, I managed to rise above the occasion. One of the toughest parts of my duty was starting an IV line to a patient who’s due for coronary angiogram. Being in the pit for almost three months already, the staff nurses are expecting me to manage simple IV insertion tasks considering that I am a certified IV therapy nurse. In single attempt, I was able to get through the vein successfully. As I emerged from the patients room, the bedside nurse told me that the IV line of my other patient has gotten out of the vein. He tried repositioning and pushing saline but there was resistance. I also tried that same but it was a failure. I had no choice I had to reinsert. It was a success.
I noticed though that my eyes were getting dry then making me uncomfortable during the IV insertions. I guess the best eye cream could help my eyes relax. I need them to be in best shape at all times.

I started my rounds almost 9:00 pm already and the way I assesed my patients, I thought that I will not be hitting the marker on time. I had so much on my plate: constant chest pain, difficulty breathing, IV line out needed reinsertion, IV line to be started, osterized feeding residual, status post chest tube thoracotomy removal with pain at the insertion site, unstable vitals, stat orders from attendings and fellows and early case of coronary angiogram plus three patients due for suppository insertion. Whew! I cannot believe I managed all these and was able to finish my chart on time. The endorsement, including the equipment inventory, was finishedbefore 8:30 am.
I am really getting the hang of it. Although, I envy the other bedside nurse and the charge nurse because they were able to catch some sleep in the wee hours of the morning.

I was furious yesterday. For one, I ended up having 7 patients and another, a male pervert patient patted me on my butt twice. They said he was a doctor but he does not look like one. He is extremely obese confined in bed requiring total care in terms of oral and body hygiene. They said he’s been coming in and out of the hospital for quite a while already. Instead of me having pity on his condition, I tended to hate him. I left the charged nurse for his diaper change and I called upon his bedside nurse to assist him. Maybe that moron has overdosed some testosterone cream making him act that way. It was not the first time that he did that to a nurse. As a precaution, he is being assigned to male nurses.

I was too caught up with my hospital duty that I forgot to respond to the job notifications I received on my email. I did my job search a few months ago right after I was hired as a full time nurse. Right now I have a handful of job matches and I am still browsing through the institutions’ requirements. I hope I’d land on a great career.

Yesterday was my last of my straight PM shifts (7pm to 7am) and I am glad that I managed to survive, somehow. I will be on AM shift tomorrow (7am to 7pm) after my two days off and yet I still feel the need to get energized. I have slept all day yesterday and I got up almost lunch time today.
Unlike my colleagues, I do not hate this effin’ job. It is still rewarding, I just hope that I have all the time in the world to carry out my duties without missing any of it. Or in reality, I just hope I could manage my time effectively so I could get to finish all my tasks on time and get home early.

I was so energetic last night which was unusual of me. I don’t know maybe because I am with the same sked with my apprenticeship training friend. Although a patient’s relative complained about me, it was overall okay. I was filling up the turn in slip for the unwanted medicines I have charged when a relative of a patient who was about to get discharged approached me questioning the IV catheters charged to the patient. It turned out that my friend erroneously charged it to the said patient which she has brought up earlier in the shift. I promised her to help her process the turning in of the materials. I informed the relative that the bill will be duly adjusted. The relative was pleased about it even though his father’s life insurance quote would cover for the said charges. It is still worth it to stop and look at the figures.

Everyone in the hospital is going nuts over the Canada accreditation. The visitors will come for a time and motion study this Monday. I do not know what the accreditation is for but one this is for sure, we are all asked to put our best foot forward to earn the sought after accreditation. I also learned that employee screening is part of the program

I have crazy work schedule and at times I get confused on which face cream should I put on my face after washing up. I have different creams for day and night so if I came from a night shift and I will sleep during the day, I usually ask myself which cream should I use. A simple question but I think it’s very substantial.

Part of our job is to have the patients safe from bedsores or if they already have, we must ensure that will be contained. With this as our goal, we make sure to turn the patient from side to side every two hours. Although I am not the “turning” nurse, I have to help him or her in carrying out the task and seriously, there are some patients who are heavy enough that they make us make the valsalva manuever which is not good as I feel that it has effects down behind there. I think I will be needing hemorrhoid cream in the future.