beat

The past couple of days I had it pretty easy at work. And at the start of yesterday's shift, I only had 3 patients (although two open beds left open the possibility to be slammed with two admissions). Because the census was so low, there was a shuffling of patients and nurses (I think some were canceled) and I ended up with five patients:

Patient 1: peg tube, trach, vegetative state due to traumatic brain injury, etc. complete care, turn every two hours to prevent skin breakdown.
Patient 2: quadriplegic needing pain management and to be turned every two hours.
Patient 3: transfer from surgical critical care unit. needs to be turned every two hours.
Patient 4: pt needs assist of two to get up out of bed. Pain management; Thankfully turns self.
Patient 5: needing pain management, IV antibiotics, thankfully, patient can get up by himself.

Thankfully, by the time I transferred one patient (not listed) and got patients number 2, 3, and 5, most care had already been completed (dressing changes, etc). If I remember right, admitting diagnosis for patients (in no order): wound infection, cellulitis, pneumonia, GI bleed, Cancer, rule out goat. The other days I also had pulmonary embolism, cellulitis, and worsening pneumonia in an immunosuppressed patient.

Reason I mention this? A friend, who desperately wants a job in shock trauma/critical care is working at a small community hospital on a medical floor. She enjoys some of the people she works with, but is bored at work. She feels like she isn't being challenged and she states she knows how to care for pneumonia and congestive heart failure like no other.

I heard this and thought, "wow, I suck." I still question myself (and ask others a ton of questions). I've had some CHF patients. I've had my share of pneumonias. But last night I realized, I don't have those patients every day.

While I sometimes dislike the field of nursing I am in (medical, which is pretty broad as you can see from my the patient profile I've had the last few days), I can't help but think, "wow...I am seeing A LOT." still might not know a lot, but I'm learning. Sounds silly, but writing this out, despite the amount of complaining we all day on our floor, it's pretty damn cool that we see so much!