Cutting the Cord

Today was my first day off orientation.

Yeah, I know. I've spent many, many weeks on orientation. More weeks on orientation than for any other typical new nurse on a med-surg floor (most orientations last 8-10 weeks; mine was around 12-14 weeks).

All my preceptors, friends, and co-workers told me that I was more than ready. It was really a matter of me believing in myself (isn't that always the case though?).

Last night, I had a weird dream that I was on the floor without a tech/assistant. At one point, I woke up in the middle of the night because "a patient' had a painful IV site, with an obvious case of phlebitis. Because (in my dream) his IV pole was so far away I told 'him' "don't worry, you'll be fine!" and went back to bed. (note...I don't doubt that I actually said this outloud. I have a habit of talking in my sleep when I'm stressed and tend to experience vivid dreams.)

I woke up this morning and said, "i'm Ok. I'm going to be Ok. this is going to be fine. I'm not doing anything new."

Got to the hospital ridiculously early. Received report at 0700. The night nurse left at 0730. at 0750 I had to call for a RRT, or rapid response team because in a matter of minutes, a patient had gone from being alert and oriented, sitting up, having an appropriate conversation with me, to shaking lips, quivering eyes, extremely difficult to arouse, and when he did speak, his speech was slurred.

I was off orientation for 50 minutes (30 of those minutes were for receiving report), and I began the day with a RRT. Bring it on. Hit me with your best shot. The day could only get better.

As far as I know, the patient is fine. Nobody is sure why his status changed so quickly and so drastically. I'm curious to see him tomorrow. The patient also ended up spending most of the day off the floor, so I really haven't had the chance to talk get his baseline. I can't say we did much for the patient. vital signs were stable, o2 sat was normal. who knows. I'm more than curious.

Hopefully tomorrow goes smoother :) No more RRTs.