The First Night That Was After four years, last night I experienced working in the night shift again. As the jargon description graveyard, indeed it was! I started receiving the report from the day shift. The first patient is an old Mexican man suffering from ischemic stroke. He has long been in the hospital as I cared for him since last week. He always complains of headache but I think it is part of his condition which makes him think he is. And so double dose of Tylenol PO is given PRN. I am like a sirang plaka saying - in a scale of 0-10, where is your pain now? And the situation was worsen by the fact that he only speaks Spanish and no one from his relatives can speak English too...and so I used the language line. The language line a.k.a. blue phone is a three-way phone which speaks to an interpreter. Here is US, those who do not have much in life stays in the hospital longer. He has to be referred to a rehab facility but because he has no insurance the option is to bring him to an out-of-pocket rehab or just to bring him home. I learned that to have an insurance here is a must! The second patient was brought to the hospital after he was found lying on the floor of his house unconscious. No one is looking after him at home as he claim his son and daughter needs to go to work and since they do not have much in life (again) they are unable to send him to a nursing facility (home for the elderly). Good thing his CT and MRI were both negative. Yet he has an infection, increased WBC (here, an increased WBC is already considered an infection). Hence, Levaquin (LEVOFLOXACIN) is given. Urine C/S was ordered too. Now, the third patient made my night! He has a new admit (transfer) from Telemetry, an old man again suffering from labored breathing. Hes on O2 @ 5 LPM via NC. In the middle if the night he had panic attack and so Ativan was ordered by the MD which to my thought has just worsen the situation. Think! A labored-breather was given an Ativan??? And so it suppressed the respiratory effort and the patient desaturated down to 80% SpO2. The RRT hooked him to OPTIC FLOW and given him 40 L O2 at 60% FiO2!!! Whoah!!! I suggested an intubation yet they did not listen. And so still desaturated and labored the patient went into arrest!!! Whoah!!! My first CODE BLUE!!! The alarm awaken the sleeping spirits of the whole hospital and a bunch of team flocked the room!!! As I was about to do the CPR he converted to Sinus Tachycardia and so the CODE BLUE was immediately cancelled. Good thing shall I say that it was just an unsustained V-Tach. Oh my!!! And so Amiodarone protocol was initiated. They still dont want to intubate the patient and was just hooked to a Bi-PAP. When the day shift nurses arrived, I saw a bunch of angels coming from heavens door! The first times are always a baptismal fire which everyone needs to experience, and yes I had my fair share. I went home, ate breakfast, took a hot shower and immediately anesthetized to slumber! #MaleNurse #Murse #LivingInUSA #RN
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 21:32:31 +0000
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