Resources I wished I had

This article for my patient who was so very unhappy with her ex-husband's last name. If the former Mrs. U. comes in, I'll print it out.

More often than not, I'd like opportunities like this one to volunteer. Some of my coworkers need rejuvenation more than others.

After a wild, blood moon kind of week, I am so happy it's the weekend!

TGIF all wherever you may be!

Me and Angelina Jolie

Now for something completely different...

I nearly coughed my coffee all over my laptop on this latest "news". I am SO glad I now have something in common with Angie and this other starlet.

What's up with Jen and Angelina? (from shine at Yahoo!)

P.S. If you have those on our unit, and crap in the arms, we'd go straight there for IVs and blood draws.

Snack attack

I like chips and salsa anyway, but why on earth did someone make the chips healthy enough that you'd want to eat the whole entire bag? Now if they were calorie-free...ah! They were really that good!

At least, I wasn't NPO all day for some labs like the older couple over at the Saintarama Internal Medicine office today. True, Mr. and Mrs. Smith (not their real names) could afford to miss a meal, but be NPO until 3PM? I know their doc (aka Wild Pants) and trust me, if I had had time, I'd have loved to a) see if he was wearing the really weird golf pants today (it is Wednesday) and b) asked him if he had heatstroke, making his people NPO for so long.

Now, I'll just have to get back to working on my photo project I delayed one too many times. Got a deadline now, so I have to make it before school starts.

That is all, so resume snacking. More from the Hotel later!

Sure, it looks easy

But running around and doing everything you need to do on Monday can get really, really crazy.

I thought I had a reasonable assignment, but I ended up getting involved in miscellany again. One minute it was transferring a patient who didn't want to go anywhere for a test, the next it was changing trach ties. Finally, I get my people finished in time for lunch...literally just in time, as lunch was delivered.

Next, I straightened a room, ate my lunch and enjoyed peace and quiet, when I found out my admission had arrived. I spent the rest of the afternoon getting things done--assessment and paperwork. When I thought I was done, I had to teach to a few people how to draw blood from a PICC. Oh, we so need a refresher on blood draws for some people, including order of the draw. I also realized I need to get educated on bloodstream infections, particularly regarding blood cultures and PICC catheter cultures.

Finally, I finished my day. I was able to sit down to do my paperwork. While I had a moment, I got in on a conversation about alcoholism (an observation by another coworker) and she mentioned this resource. It also made me think later that we might just need to involve more of our patients in alcohol treatment programs than we currently do.

The day didn't quite work the way I thought it would, but it was not terrible. We'll see how the rest of the week goes...stay tuned.

Picture this...

Patient in bed, turn q2 hours. On Coumadin for DVT prophylaxis and owns a Greenfield IVC filter. Per report, patient bleeding from every orifice--that's right--every stinking one...drip, drip, drip. You turn patient and find a pool there, too, from a wound on back side.

Doc's not worried about it per nurse caring for patient on previous shift. I love my job, but sometimes I really scratch my head on stuff like this.