Work

Well in the last 3 weeks I have been floating to the NICU. What a treat! Just Kidding. I signed up for it on my float preferences to get the challenge and experience, as well as earn a little extra 10%/hour. This has proven to be a good experience so far, their census is really high right now and they are short staffed and my unit is merged with another closed unit staff right now so we are over staffed. Therefore those who are willing get floated to the NICU or other units where necessary. I thought I would hate it I was scared my first night, but seeing as how I am not a NICU nurse I am not given patients who are ventilators or require more than just growing and feeding. Nice! I haven't worked with any really small babies, littlest is about 4 lbs and 32 weeks... The sickest baby I have worked with up there is a Downs girl, whose parents havent named her and shes 14 days old. :( Has a full cleft palate and partial cleft lip. Has a Patent Foramen Ovale, Patent Ductus Arteriosus and a Ventral Septal Defect. All these things I learned in Nursing school that I never thought I would remember! I used to be so scared of the heart but now I am much more comfortable with it.

Other than that my home unit has had a few patients die in the last 6 weeks that has hit the unit hard. Two were chronic patients that we've all cared for and one was a acutely ill patient that was on the unit for a short time. Actually they all were on the unit for a short time. I feel that these deaths two were preventable one not really. The two preventable ones have hit the unit the hardest obviously because we didn't do our job. I'm just glad I wasn't really there for any of the situations. I have a good feeling that our unit being combined with another unit is having an effect on the unit as a whole. Which has thrown a tension into the mix and had all the staff from both units on edge. We are getting floated a lot because we are overstaffed and/or called off...Some of the other units RNs are not entirely professional as they should be at the RN station or in interactions with the patients and their families. Which apparently we are starting to get complaints about. I just hope that things start to take shape because I dont know how much longer the staff, unit or hospital can handle this situation.

Thats a little update about work. The rest of my life is going okay. I have my first of 4 weddings this year to attend this weekend 6/12 and a Tour De Cure Bike ride for Diabetes this weekend, which will be my 3rd year participating in this event. Always a blast and this year is gonna be more memorable because my grandpa is gone...so ill be definitely doing it with more passion. Off to get my bike fixed!

-M