Yesterday was my first 12 hour shift and boy it was crazy. I believe I went through close to a dozen emotions...frustration, fear, encouragement, success, and humor.
When I arrived to the hospital I was assigned to a a unit which took me FOREVER to find...no one knew where it was and sent me every which way to find this "hidden" unit. Anyways, I finally found the unit and was assigned to sitting for lets just say "Mr. Jones." When I got to the room I got a quick report on him which consisted of the sitter telling me make sure his oxygen stays on his face since it keeps coming off. After 2 hours and only reading about 8 pages in my book (to give you an idea of how previous sitting assignments have been, I've been able to read close to 200 pages during the 8 hours) I was getting a little frustrated. He kept on pulling his oxygen off his face about every 1 to 2 minutes. But it definitely kept me awake...hahaha!!!
I continued to put the oxygen mask back on his face but all of a sudden his oxygen saturation rate dropped...and FAST!!! I put the call light on and the nurse came in right away (she must have been right outside the door...because I really mean RIGHT AWAY)!!! She began to assess him and called the respiratory team. Then his heart rate started to fluctuate and before I knew it we had hit the code blue button and about 20 people were in the room with over 10 people waiting outside. I have never seen so many people flood a room so quickly and work so efficiently. It was also the first time I had seen CPR performed (after all those classes, nothing could have prepared me to take it all in). A weird shiver went down my spine watching it all...a little fear overcame me. But thankfully that emotion did not enter my mind until my job was done and I had left the room.
I went into the conference room to talk with the house supervisor who was incredibly nice. She had to ask me about what had happened since I was the one person who had been with him the past three hours. I was really encouraged when she told me I did everything right. Then the nurse who had been with me came into the room to tell me good job and I had done everything correct. It was still a little scary, but I am happy they were so encouraging to me. I am also encouraged to know that after "Mr. Jones" flat lining, he was revived.
Since he was being transferred to the ICU, he no longer needed me as his sitter, and quite honestly I don't think I could have stayed with him the next couple of hours. I was transferred to be a PCT for the next half of a shift. I was happy to be busy working without stopping for 4 hours straight...one call light after another. Quite a few of the patients were going home on this unit, so I took out multiple IVs which I think I've perfected that skill to not spill blood on my uniform :) I felt such success after the shift was complete...14 patients and all :)
The last 4 hours of my shift I was sitting once again. This was a little different though. I was with a patient who had dementia. She was very upset about everything in the world...telling me how "you people have ruined this world" and "you are so ignorant of this world." It was hard to listen to her rants about how horrible life is. I sort of felt bad for her and the mindset she was trapped in. On the other hand between her mean comments, some of which were directly toward me sometimes, I found some humor. I cannot even remember the ridiculous things she would say at times, but some of it was funny. She was yelling at the crucifix on the wall for a while and through that in an odd way I was able to witness to her a little bit. I am not entirely sure where her faith was before and where it is now, but I was happy to have had that experience. It would be incredibly difficult to have a someone close to you have dementia and I now have such respect for people who are going through that.
I know that today was a good day, it was just VERY tough. I do believe I will always remember my first code blue, but it is encouraging that he was revived.
No comments:
Post a Comment