A day in the life of a nurse....

I am interested in hearing about your day

Please state what shift you work, what floor you work and how your day generally flows. Then add 1 abnormality into your day be it a discharge, admit, code, fall, etc and how you find time to incorporate that into your day. Thanks!
As a nurse educator I will say that my day is built around abnormalities. I suspect the floor nurses feel the same.

Quote from classicdameAs a nurse educator I will say that my day is built around abnormalities. I suspect the floor nurses feel the same.

I work 12 hour nights. I am in the Central Resource Pool. I signed up to work in three different departments ER, ICU, and Tele. I even work Med-Surg if needed. I dont know what department I work until I get to work. I love it because I get to float to other units and have a different atmosphere. I dont know how my night going to be so I dont know if I will be coming or going. This makes feel good.Before the CRP, I worked just Tele. I may get pulled once in awhile because I was mostly charged on the unit. I knew I needed to do something different because I grew tired of the unit and the nurse manager didnt make it any easier. I was working with some nurses who just made a big deal out nothing. Nurses were to laid back very nonchalant. Didnt want to participate or show any teamwork. I couldnt deal with anymore. I was working every weekend. I needed a change. I wanted something new. I needed to grow. I enjoy my new nurse manager. We both see eye to eye. We understand what we want from each other.It is like being a free agent. I love it. I wouldnt change it for anything.

I'm interested in reading responses to this as well. I'll be in nursing school in the fall so I'm still pretty new to everything...I like to read about other people's days. It seems like the "typical day" question is pretty, well, typical coming from students...in my previous degree program (journalism), we always got the standard answer "Oh, every day is different..." And that's absolutely true, but examples of the day-to-day can be really helpful to newbies...What might be an alternative question is, give us a rundown of the last day you worked. Even if it was totally abnormal, I'd love to read about it!

I have no such thing as a "normal" day. Every day IS different.Falls, codes, admits, discharges are all pretty much a part of every workday, just at random times throughout the shift. The flow of my shift depends on what shift i am working as well( I work days, eves, and nights).My last shift was a day.Got my assignment, got report.Eyeballed all my patients and said good morning, did my glucometers.Drew up an insulin. Sat my parients up in bed and them positioned for breakfast.Passed meds.Helped clean up a pt that vomited and got her a Gravol supp.helped the PSWs wash and dress their remaining patients.Did dressing changes.Charted. Helped some other nurses with heavy patients.Answered bells.Took a break.Did an admission.Did lunch meds.Had lunch.Toileted and put people to bed for nap if needed.More charting. Write on report sheet so charge nurse can tape report.Chatted with oncoming staff until it was time to leave.

I am currently in a clinic, mon-fri 8-5. And I've grown to hate the monotony. (so i leave for private duty pedi's in 3 weeks!)so...8 am I print todays schedule and hand them out to my doc and nurse practitioner.830 -330 patients are checked in vitals are taken and then checked out again. all day...in between that I return phone calls, call in Rx's, apologize to my pt. for the dr being an ass, complain a little to my friends, and call pt to tell there labs are ok or they need to come in. and I mail off some of them at 4pm.Abnormalities to my day include:an unscheduled thyroid biopsy; we just do it, i have biopsy packs already made up, only adds about 30 minutes of extra work. My Doc decides he needs to be out of the office in 3 days (or 3 months); I print the schedules, and call people all day in between everything else, apologize for the short notice, and if he's being a jerk, i fill his schedule and little too tight for his liking on another day. : ) easy job, but i'm super tired of it.