Everything old is new again

When they send an e-mail at the end of the day, one of my colleagues at the Hotel says, "it's usually not good."

The latest e-mail: one of the most hated medical administrators is back. Apparently, he/she came out of retirement to take a job in our internal medicine service, the largest service in our system.

Frankly, I just hope the rest of them stay retired.

Enjoy your weekend wherever you are. Stay tuned...

So glad

TGIF! A long weekend awaits with Dahey and Bubba. I can't wait. It's been far too long.

It was an exciting week. Dahey returned from TDY. Hallelujah! I have a backup for the soon-to-be teenager who needs a parent pal sometimes. I love Bubba, but Momma needs a break! The boys are already planning their next adventure to the movies for The Martian.

We survived the inspection, but maybe, after a few of these, I'm becoming jaded. Some of the things they asked us has very little bearing on nursing. I like to consider myself informed, but I had no idea about some of the stuff they asked. Happily, most of my other colleagues in the department felt the same.

Happily, we saw a few patients and got some work done. Since we've had a few exciting things happen lately, I've gotten to put on my research hat. One of our patients seemed sick but really had a anteroapical MI on our acute unit. Diagnosing an MI in a spinal cord injury patient, or one with diminshed sensation due to stroke, brain injury, etc., can be challenging.

I learn something new every day. Another one of our patients had issues being intubated so the doctors elected to do awake airway intubation for his/her surgery. It was very interesting to me to watch the staff who participated in this video below.

Hope you enjoy your weekend, long or short, wherever you may be!

You know you're back in nursing school if...

1. You need to provide your immunization record to take one online course. No exceptions.

Hope I don't give anyone a communicable disease.

I was exempted from the meningitis shot, though, since I don't live on campus.

That is all...more to come.

Back to reading!

The boys are back

And they're telling stories at Serenity Now Hospital again. Yippee!

Glad to have you back! Enjoying the snark coming out of the ED again. Not sure if the stripper story or the citrus one are more clearly Captain Obvious cases or not.

Go see for yourselves. More to come...

Amen, brother

"If you're quiet, you're not living. You've got to be noisy and colorful and lively."
--Mel Brooks, American filmmaker

Life is too short to be boring, as more than a couple of my patients told me today. I ran onto the unit at the Hotel and I was surrounded by a couple of long-timers, who kept asking me to come back.

This continues to irritate the Slug, much to my great amusement. New Manager is really surprised, but also overwhelmed. It should be interesting to see what happens during his/her first year. I just hope we all make it! He/she has no idea what's going on.

Stay tuned. I plan on being noisy and colorful and lively on a regular basis...just because it irritates some people.

Savoring the last moments...

Of vacation until I go back to work. So I'm taking my self on in...and this is really what you're gettin', kiddos!



More to come...stay tuned.

Adios SU

I left the SU in good hands. The nurse I replaced temporarily came back and she looked quite happy. All that had been in shambles in her world at was right with the world and she was ready to celebrate at work.

We celebrated by eating donuts. She and I ate most of them, since many people chickened out, since they all started New Year's diet programs. Life is made to be lived and a good donut is still a good donut, she said.

The floor is still the floor. It was the crazy busy place it always is, only there was much quiet today. I don't know why, but things were very, very slow when the lunch trays came (we pass out any to isolation patients). A couple of senior nurses and I just looked at each other wondering where everyone went.

I had a decent assignment, but as many of you already know, when you go from one job to another, it can be challenging. I use a completely different set of skills when I work the floor vs. SU.

The majority of people were happy to see me--one so much that even though he usually squanders time lolling around in bed driving nurses nuts, he actually got up when I went on rounds and stopped in his room. This particular patient has been around regularly since I started at Madison and we have a very good rapport.
"What are you doing here?" he asked me and his nurse. I replied, "I came back and I'm here to tell you to get your a&$ out of bed." We chuckled and he complied and got up when his nurse came back.

The doctors acted as if they hadn't seen me in years, even though, I saw some of them every day while I was reassigned. Surprisingly, they were happier to see me than some of my coworkers. The Slug, happily, was at a conference and not available.

Overall, the day flew by. I was lucky enough to squeeze my lunch into it all. We'll see how it continues...stay tuned.

Wrapping it up

Happily, with all the snow, the SU has been slow. I've been busy putting things back together for the nurse I replaced. The crew is all looking forward to her coming back. I'm not looking forward to going back to the Hotel, but I'm dealing with it. At least, my boss let me be on days for a week, so I can float over if needed to help out. Hopefully, her first week back won't be too stressful.

I'll really miss having my own office with a window and relative quiet. I won't miss the psycho secretary, though. We'll see how it goes.

Recently, I went to a unit meeting and it was interesting. The council started giving out candy awards for the nice things that people do and write up on cards for others. It's nice to see the sentiment, but I wonder if it will last. They are giving some other prizes, too, that people really want (i.e. the get out of the office for an hour free cards). At least, it feels like changes are coming. We can only wait and see.

Finally, I got a note from a family member of one of our deceased patients. The bright orange note really made my day. I could hardly believe that they remembered me.

And so it goes...more to come.

Counting down

I really am torn. I am counting down the number of days until my return to the Hotel. I like certain aspects of working in the SU, but despise others. It is cleaner in a clinic environment, and relatively quieter. I like having an office, even if it's passed through constantly because the office printer, much of the supplies as well and microwave and refrigerator are in there. Frankly, if my cohort needs a vacation when the doc is not going, I'd be happy to come back.

A few of my Hotel cohorts were at S's retirement party the other day. "We're ready for you to come back," the charge nurse said. "We're just spread thin, and we need you. So many new people are getting oriented and they're just not there yet." It's nice to feel wanted, even if the return will not be welcomed by all.

In between all of this, I found a great article about writing poetry. I have been collecting snippets of thoughts here and there. Maybe one of these days I can put them all together and publish some.

More later...

Back in the saddle again...

The Hotel's still the same, even if they changed the sign out in front while I was gone.  So far, no one's harassed me for any conference freebies.

More to come...stay tuned.

Sort, shift, shuffle

And that's how I'm ending a pleasant vacation at home. A few major things done, lots of minor things, and lots of assorted miscellany in between. Now I'm sorting school-related paperwork.

Except for a little sinus craziness going on, I feel pretty good. I wish I could do this little three day thing every month. (My boss would kill me, I'm sure!). I am also thankful. In talking with people I haven't talked to in a long time, I realize that I am happy and healthy and I'd just better start to be grateful for that. Many of my friends have their own health issues and lots and lots of caregiver strain issues.

Well, back to paper shuffling...then on to dinner with friends. I can't think of a better way to end vacation.

I'll be back to the old grind tomorrow. Stay tuned...I've got lots of goodies planned next week. Thanks for stopping by everyone! You make my day...now leave a comment if you please! ;->

Back to reality

Yes, vacation's over, and it was fun. I went back to work and it's still work.

Some of our longtime folks left. We're just taking bets on how long it will be before they come back. Some folks are superstitious so they always preface their guess with a "don't say you-know-who".

Dahey, Bubba and I had a blast. I just wish it would have been longer! It also would have been nice if a few of our friends who are on vacation now could have been on vacation then.

More to come...I have lots of stuff I'm working on. Stay tuned!

Welcome week

Yes, that's what they should be calling this week. People who were gone are returning and people we haven't seen in a while have come back. If only the Hotel wasn't such a great place to stay!

My day went well. I had the choice of assignment, so in the interest of simplicity for me today and the next time I work, I asked for my two characters from last week back. Yes, maybe I'm a glutton for punishment, or I've finally got them working with me. All went well, so that was nice.

I found I learned a few new things today. The docs are impressed that I read notes. I talked to one of the residents running around with the doc there and they were talking about someone's recent surgery. I told them what I knew about it, asked a couple of questions and got a quick 101 from the specialist. They seemed impressed that I knew what type of surgery it was.

After that, I was rooting around in some lab results and ran into this new bug: Providencia stuartii. eMedicine has a great overview of this family of enterobacter-type infections, which is really interesting.

The rest of my day was taking care of my people, admitting one of the regulars, troubleshooting some tech issues for some other staff, and passing pills for our nurse who was getting a little hypoglycemic from not eating. Ahh, what fun!

The folks on this end were getting restless looking for pills (since they were a few minutes late) until they found out I was delivering them. I've pushed pills down there for so long, I can almost read their minds...and they know I'll bring them what they want. (After the first 100 times, it's pretty easy to remember...I just look and bring the stuff along).

Finally, I passed all the meds, finished my paperwork, helped another person with theirs, and escaped on my merry way.

More to come...stay tuned!