As I was leaving work today, I realized that this was one of those days that quote was meant for!
Sure, the day started off nice and easy. I started with two patients, as did a couple of other nurses because we were not "full" (one of the reasons I got yesterday off). I quickly learned that one of them would be going home. My other patient was pretty busy (lots of medications and coordinating of times and various cares), so I had plenty of things to do until early afternoon. It was about that time that I learned I would be getting a patient from the ER. I had pretty much figured out "the plan" for my one patient and was ready to get this next one settled and see what happened. I waited, and waited, eating more snacks than I can count in the mean time.
Then, out of nowhere, I got an unexpected update from the charge nurse. One of the other patient care areas had to be evacuated of patients immediately. Two of those patients would be coming to my area (to put things into perspective--There are nine patient rooms where I was working. At this time, there were three nurses and five patients...plus the one who was coming from the ER at some point). Of COURSE my patient from the ER and my patient from the other area arrived at the EXACT same time. (I was assigned two patients since, you know, I had only been caring for ONE patient for the past three plus hours!)
It was fairly controlled chaos pretty much until the end of the shift. However, at the end of the day, things could have been a WHOLE lot worse. The nurses on my floor have the most amazing team work. I had SO much help and we all worked well together to make sure everyone was still getting the best care possible. I'm not even sure that the families knew what kind of chaos was actually occurring all around them and that is a VERY good thing!
Even though it could have been worse...I'm still VERY glad that it was "just one day" and I have the next two days off :o)
Tomorrow night is my big baby-sitting gig. I did a little question on facebook to see how much people pay baby-sitters these days. I didn't get very many responses, but they ranged from $3/hr to $10/hr. I'm glad that I didn't have to put my idea out there! She offered me $10/hr, which it probably higher than I would have been willing to ask for, so sounds fair enough. Of course, I don't even know these people's last name, so I could be in for a surprise :o) (more likely than not, a good one, but you never know!)
Even though I spent most of the day caring for only one patient, I am one very sleepy nurse. So, 10:30 bed time for me...I think that makes me kind of "old" :o)
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