How was your shift?

6 Just got home from another CRAZY shift and just feel the need to talk about it. I worked the evening shift, started with 5 patients, discharged 2, admitted 1 and accepted 1 transfer.

Don't you just love the needy patient that whines and claims they can't do anything for themselves? Call bell after call bell "I need someone to clean me, I soiled myself!" ...yet 100% capable of walking to the bathroom. This patient was also complaining all night that she didn't want to be discharged tomorrow...I don't know how many times I had to explain she wasn't going anywhere. Unfortunately not an uncommon patient, but still not my favorite to deal with.

Next we have the patient that's 100% independent...should be a breeze! But ah in fact she's a talker, beware if you enter the room you will never leave. She complained to me for about an hour about one of our LPNs who was late giving her meds yesterday and how it's CRUCIAL she has all her inhalers exactly at a specific time to a tee...luckily I was able to deliver she meds on time. On top of that her port-a-cath is clotted and we are now onto our second dose of alteplase since the heparin flush and first alteplase dose didn't work. Not a crazy complicated procedure but definitely time consuming and frustrating and of course still no blood return after all of that! I try towards the end of the shift to get a blood return when she's now laying flat with her arm behind her head and wala! Blood return! Thank god

Onto pneumonia and an altered mental status. Pt found to have mild hypoxia on 4L...doc says it okay since they've decided she needs a thoracentesis...after initiating IVF...stupid mistake on my part initiating them in the first place but just a total mess of a situation that easily could've been avoided. On top of this the pt arrived from an acute care facility where the paperwork got "lost" in travel so everyone was unaware of the MRSA history and exposed for the first hour or so...yay for spreading infectious disease around!

Thankfully my two discharges were simple.

And my transfer...a retired nurse! Haha watching your every move. Typically she came with about 45 minutes left of my shift so I had to pass most of her transfer work onto the next nurse...I hate that but after the night I had there was no way to avoid it unfortunately.

So lesson learned? 8 hour shifts are rarely enough time to finish your work but what can you do! How was your shift?
Quote from CTnewgrad8268 hour shifts are rarely enough time to finish your work but what can you do!

Quote from TheCommuterThis is the precise reason I prefer 12-hour shifts. 12-hour shifts enable me to have four days off per week. Also, I am usually able to accomplish all my tasks within the 12-hour window.

My shift will be over in 15 minutes. It was a typical shift. I work private duty Peds so I only have 1 patient. Right now he's pretty stable so I get to spend time reading on my Kindle & reading allnurses.com.

I was sad and still am. We got a sick kid, and I'm still pretty new to working an ER with peds patients. I came from an ER that was adults only. I know truly sick kids are rare in a regular ER, but my heart is still breaking a little tonight.

8-hour shifts SUCK. It's 5am here so almost done! 2 patients with an empty bed waiting to see if it'll be filled. ER is at capacity. *knocks on wood* First pt is a vented, trached, peg'd ABI pt awaiting insurance approval and vent SNF placement. Their vent alarms keep going off and RT has had to change the tubing twice already. Second pt is s/p fall c AMS asking when breakfast is and staring at the clock. "I'm ready to go home. I feel better."

My shift was yesterday as a school nurse. Woohooo Fridays in a high school! Only 1 "I want to die"/cutting/drama girl thing (and thank God it was as benign as it sounded- it's not always!) and no checking to see if anyone is high. I did have 3 bloody noses from the heat being on and 3 "jammed" fingers from gym volleyball. Also the typical Seniors leaving early with a migraine- every Friday? 2 anxiety attacks and 3 staff members coming in for BP checks and meds. Sports clearances for Middle Schools sports. 1 long winded session with our soon to retire AP who talks about the good ol' days. I got to eat lunch, mostly uninterrupted.Actually, it was a pretty damn good Friday.

Quote from turtle_RN8-hour shifts SUCK. It's 5am here so almost done! 2 patients with an empty bed waiting to see if it'll be filled. ER is at capacity. *knocks on wood* First pt is a vented, trached, peg'd ABI pt awaiting insurance approval and vent SNF placement. Their vent alarms keep going off and RT has had to change the tubing twice already. Second pt is s/p fall c AMS asking when breakfast is and staring at the clock. "I'm ready to go home. I feel better."

I prefer 12's too...unfortunately not an option for me. But I work part time so I'm doing 3 8's, not 5 thank god! Where I work only one nurse does 5 8's, everyone else that's full time does 3 12's or 2 12's 2 8's.

Hi guys! I am in the last term of my RN program (yeah!) and graduate in about 8 weeks. I am precepting at one our local hospitals on med surg. My nurse works from 6:30p to 7am. So when I arrived last night it was already hectic. He had 4 pts and was getting another. So the first several hours it was crazy. One of our guys (he was young, early 30s like me) left AMA because one of his kids got hurt. He was a heroin user and smokes pot also. His speech was like 100 mph and very hyper. He was trying to rip the IV out, we finally got him to calm down and let us do it. I was glad to see him go. I am a home health LPN and so I work my own hours. I am not used to third shift so it is hard for me to function, but I pushed through. Hoping to work at one of the hospitals here in Dayton where I live, but I need to get used to doing 12 hour shifts again lol. I was a hospice nurse right out of school, but got away from that so I forgot how hectic 12 hours can be.Heather

Quote from CTnewgrad826So lesson learned? 8 hour shifts are rarely enough time to finish your work but what can you do! How was your shift?

Day was pretty cushy until that last hour when my new admit went downhill fast during report. I stayed over an hour helping the oncoming nurse. I felt guilty about handing over a crashing patient, even though I don't think I did anything wrong.

I prefer 12's also. I find 8 hours actually equals 9 by the time I'm finished my work. Then it's time to get home and repeat for five straight days.I'm more tired from 8's than I ever was with 12's. The stretch of time off that comes with 12 hour shifts makes the work much more enjoyable too.