11th - 12th September (Thursday & Friday) - Here I go, my first noon shift update. For a start, noon-shift is something that is all about pre-operations. You see, being in office hours I've never had the chance to do all these pre/ post op stuff. So, after I volunteered to take a patient to the gym for physio rehab, I came back just in time to prepare a patient for operation. Because it's his first time, he was so nervous til he kept begging me not to push the bed too fast, oh and he kept clenching his fists hard on the bed railing. I kept reassuring him it's totally normal to feel super nervous. Come on, I was a nurse, and even I was nervous for my operation, and I nearly screamed when the Lignocaine burned into my face. (Refer back to my very first post for further details) I just did what I could and comforted him. But most importantly, to have faith at the prof and the OT team. Good news to say that his op is a success. :)
Then we moved on to sponging our lovely uncle. Oh yes, apparently, uncle has to be sponged twice. Once in the morning, that I had often done as per routine, and once in the noon, to freshen him up. So it was the same, except all you need is clean warm water, powder and lotion. And uncle's lovely blanket came back, brought to him by his lovely wife. Heeheehee. So that's where uncle's blanket went. His wife even brought that toe thingamajingy to make his callus smooth. And the nurse jokingly said that uncle's feet will become super smooth than hers. Joke. ^^ Everyone of us were laughing non-stop. And uncle always protects his head now since God-knows how many times he got his head banged by others on the bed board. Lucky, it's not me, but I always tell uncle to make sure he protects his head.
On a sad note, the patient whom I once talked to, joked with and chatted with, who showed concern to us, passed away just right at the end of my shift. Poor patient. He was walking around and chatted with me on the first day he was admit and he passed away in just a week. What's even more sad is the family had called whether they can take him back so that he can pass at home, but just as the phone call is made, it's too late. I didn't want to go in at first because of fear that I'll start crying hard, but the staff told me, "You shouldn't cry. At least uncle passed in his sleep, and he wasn't suffering in pain. You should go in to pay your last respects to him." So, after finishing my final sentence on my report, I went over with the other staff as we prepared the defibrillator machine to get the final ECG reading. With the ASYSTOLE (flat line) sign flashing, giving us our proof and printing the reading to file it in, we paid our last respects to him.
Second day I'm in the morning shift, and I was sent to downstairs. God darn it. I start work from 7, and what time did I end my sponging? 11. No joke, So many spongings because of many of them just came back from operations. Oh yes, I even chased out by a snob patient. Sigh, all because I was a new staff. Yeah, she literally chased me out before I even started on anything. Well, since you put it that way, yep, I just turned and walked out, told the senior staff that the patient threw me out and I'll attend another patient who needs sponging, she gave me the okay and told me to attend another patient who needs sponging. So, off I go.
Now I was attending a really large man with severe backache, and I single-handedly sponge the patient from top to bottom. But when it came to turning the patient, sigh, I went in and out the patient's room back and forth to get help to move the patient since I couldn't lift him, well, he's massive, and he can't turn much because of his back pain. And no matter how many time I called for help, NO ONE bothered to help. Being stuck in the patient's room for more than an hour, the family took pity on me and helped out. Between us, we managed to turn the patient successfully and changed the bedsheets, drawsheets, incopads and pampers in one shot. Finally. I guess there are some nice patients out there, somewhere...
The moment I just left, someone said there's a lumbar puncture procedure about to start. Needing to brush up on my lumbar punctures, I ran and approach the prof whether I can observe, and he allowed me, by even letting me pour the solution into his gallipot and even teaching me how to locate the exact location so that we can prevent from puncturing the spinal cord nerves to avoid paralysis from the waist down. He and I ended up paying a price, because he insisted on kneeling, he ended up having his legs aching, and as for me, back and shoulder ache for holding the patient in a C-shaped position for nearly an hour to collect the precious CSF. Argh, my back. >~>
Finally finishing the procedure, I hurriedly ate a quick lunch by gobbling at full speed, and just nice, i ran into the Sister who's in charge of the roster. I asked her whether it's possible to leave my Saturdays for morning shifts for Japanese class. Surprise, surprise, I told my parents form the time I started on management, the Sister had already warned me, occasionally it's okay, but don't expect to get everyday cause it's not fair to others. Yep, I told them so but they were too thick-headed to listen; finally get to prove them wrong.
While I was having my lunch, people were asking me whether I heard the big drama. Since Wednesday was my day off, I wasn't there. So they told me um, an incident where the surgeon shouted the F*** word a lot for something regarding about discharge, which caused one of the staff to get furious til she shouted at him back. Oh dear... That's scary. Seriously, maybe I'll explain it in an edited version in face to face but not here. To risky and it's to maintain privacy and confidentiality.
Seeing the lack of staff, I was shoved to the front lines to assist a prof in... blood-taking. Oh yes, those training in ER is finally paying off. Apart from a few edited parts here and there, I succeeded in dividing all the blood in equal vacu-containers for two patients and labeled them quickly. Then I did 3 rounds of ECG to get the practice back into my head. So all in all, I was shoved to front lines with zero experience, but someday, I 'll really thank those staff for giving me the confidence and skill to assist the profs in the various procedures.
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