One shift down....

Yup, first shift at the hospital, done! And man is it different. I was expecting it to be different, but it seems completely backwards! Things I wouldn't normally even think to get double checked, they do, and other things that I would be cautious doing, they do on their own!

I was paired up with a very nice nurse - Kristie who showed me the ropes. It was a bit of a gong show of an evening as one of the patients of the unit passed away while in radiology, and we had another pt crash on us at around 1800 which meant the charge nurse had to take over her care, and Kristie took over charge! I was kinda left on my own a bit but managed fine and got help from other nurses on the floor. The staff is a fairly young vibrant group and I look forward to working with them.

So, things that are different:

-EVERYTHING that has to do with an IV - even priming a line, the solution has to be checked.

-Any IV medication that is mixed - which most of their antibiotics need to be mixed (how annoying!) or any med that is given through the IV, is checked - and I mean checked. ( I accidentally through out the gent amps that I was withdrawing, and Kristie made me do it all over again...oops)

-Some medications are giving IV push - which I have never done. The only med that I know of is ampicillian....didn't have a chance to ask what other drugs are given, and I will laugh if lasix isn't one of them.

-Everything is done on paper. The only thing we check on the computer is lab work. Hell, even their x-rays are old school. If you ask me its a lot of unnecessary running around trying to find their charts ect when needing to chart.

-Oh yeah, the only charting on the pt's is done on the 'early' shift. (early, late and nights is what they are called here) The only charting I did on the late shift yesterday was when I administered meds.

-And of course we don't start IV's - which is going to drive me crazy 'cause as most of my nursing friends now, I LOVE to start IV's - and I'd say I'm pretty good at it. Yesterday we had an IV that was no good - and of course we had to give 3 antibiotics, so we had to call the attending up. It took an hour, then some time for her to get it in, she missed the first one and I know I coulda got an 18 gauge in there (haha), and by the time she finished I only got one antibiotic in, and had to leave the others for nights. If we could do them, I could have gotten all three in and not have left unnecessary work for nights.

-Narcotics are double locked, benzo's are only a single lock, and count is only done once a day - so weird.

-Oh yeah, the worst, they have a 'pan room', where yup, you guessed it, all bed pans, urinals, cylinders are all plastic, and we wash them......eeewwwww! They have a dishwasher that cleans them, and when we have no 'orderlies' AKA nursing attendants, around, we get to do it. No plastic/disposable cylinders for emptying foley's - we have to walk down the hallway with theses things full of pee, and empty it in the pan room, then leave it in the sink to be put in the dishwasher. That, I would say, was the worst part!!!!!

Anyways, that's all for now! Have to shower and get ready for my next late shift. Hopefully its not as much of a gong show :)