Perianne
03-05-2016, 02:37 AM
One of the girls went to Texas Roadhouse to get dinner for all of us. I got country chicken, baked potato, and a salad.
Although against the rules, we have to eat at the nurses' station because there is not enough staff to cover all the patients.
Where I work there is an intensive care unit (ICU) at the north end of the hall. That is where I usually work. In spite of what some may think, I am a very skilled nurse. So I wind up working with the more difficult patients.
The ICU nurses' station seat where I was sitting and charting is about 10-15 feet from patient B. He has frequent, smelly diarrhea.
Anyway, I have all of my patients cared for and put down for their night's sleep. I am very hungry, since it is after 11 pm and I haven't eaten anything since breakfast. I microwave my food and sit down to eat.
At that point, patient D complains and needs to be suctioned. Suctioning involves using a small plastic tube to place down the tracheostomy to suck out nice, thick, respiratory secretions. When I was a new nurse, respiratory secretions made me gag. Nowadays, it's nothing to me. If you have ever walked along a sidewalk and noticed a glob of thick, disgusting, yellow mucus on the concrete, that is what comes from the lungs sometimes. I suck it out.
When I come back, I find that patient B has had diarrhea again. I go and help the aide clean the patient. There is something special about the diarrhea produced by tube feeding. It has an evil all its own.
After that is completed, I go back to my food and attempt to eat.
I get a few bites down when patient A's sat monitoring drops below normal. I go and fix that situation. While in there, I notice the patient's tube feeding has become disconnected from the PEG tube and has spilled into the bed. The aide and I change the patient's bedding, all the while hearing complaints by the patient.
The food is still there when I get back. I finish eating with the smell of fresh diarrhea in the air. The food was tasty.
Although against the rules, we have to eat at the nurses' station because there is not enough staff to cover all the patients.
Where I work there is an intensive care unit (ICU) at the north end of the hall. That is where I usually work. In spite of what some may think, I am a very skilled nurse. So I wind up working with the more difficult patients.
The ICU nurses' station seat where I was sitting and charting is about 10-15 feet from patient B. He has frequent, smelly diarrhea.
Anyway, I have all of my patients cared for and put down for their night's sleep. I am very hungry, since it is after 11 pm and I haven't eaten anything since breakfast. I microwave my food and sit down to eat.
At that point, patient D complains and needs to be suctioned. Suctioning involves using a small plastic tube to place down the tracheostomy to suck out nice, thick, respiratory secretions. When I was a new nurse, respiratory secretions made me gag. Nowadays, it's nothing to me. If you have ever walked along a sidewalk and noticed a glob of thick, disgusting, yellow mucus on the concrete, that is what comes from the lungs sometimes. I suck it out.
When I come back, I find that patient B has had diarrhea again. I go and help the aide clean the patient. There is something special about the diarrhea produced by tube feeding. It has an evil all its own.
After that is completed, I go back to my food and attempt to eat.
I get a few bites down when patient A's sat monitoring drops below normal. I go and fix that situation. While in there, I notice the patient's tube feeding has become disconnected from the PEG tube and has spilled into the bed. The aide and I change the patient's bedding, all the while hearing complaints by the patient.
The food is still there when I get back. I finish eating with the smell of fresh diarrhea in the air. The food was tasty.