I don't sleep at night... no biggie.

If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed and color, we would find some other cause for prejudice by noon. ~ George Aiken

Sad, but most likely true. People love to hate.

I'm Jess. I live in Charleston, WV. I am a nurse on a neurological floor. I mostly care for older people that have had strokes or have other problems with their noggins. Some seizures, head trauma and spinal surgery too. Lately it's also been the satellite psych ward. I work night shift, so it's even more fun since the real crazies come out at night.
April 14

NGs and IVs

My shift last night was fairly busy to steady. I didn’t have much sit around time, but I wasn’t totally running my butt off the whole shift. I felt like I actually got to be a nurse a lot of the time instead of just being a pill pusher, butt wiper, and continuous charter. I swear hospitals think charting and documentation are the end-all be-all of our lives. If you actually have to do patient care, you get behind on your charting and lord help you if that happens. The world just might end. 

Not only did I keep up with all my responsibilities after feeling like I was getting behind in the first few hours, I was able to help out other people too. I even got to practice some of my skills in the last couple hours. I placed an NG tube… a fairly barbaric procedure where I shove a tub about the width of a pencil (slightly larger) down a patient’s nose, down their throat and into their stomach. I don’t really like doing it, though I guarantee it’s way worse for the patient.

(Image from a Google search)

The insertion went off without any problems and the patient didn’t fight too much.

Then right at shift change the patient of another nurse lost their IV access. The other nurse was behind and I happened to be all caught up with my patients, so she asked if I could try to get another IV in the lady. Now, I’m not the best at placing IVs… yet. I tend to shy away from the “hard sticks” (people with tiny or fragile veins), but I told her I’d give it a go. The patient admitted that she was a hard stick and that the vein I chose had a tendency to “roll” (the vein somehow moves and “dodges” the needle when you are attempting to put the IV in). Great. But I went in with confidence and got an IV in her on the first try. I was pretty proud of myself actually. Putting in IVs is a skill that really takes a lot of practice and since many of our patients come up from the ER with IVs already, I don’t get to practice as much as I’d like to. I think I’m getting better though. :)