Thursday, January 22, 2009

knock me down a few pegs

My manager was extremely impressed with my email from the previously mentioned world-famous surgeon who paged me with a kudos. She even showed it to my supervisor. After my stellar weekend, though, I took a patient with a fistula-turned-ostomy that kept leaking. The resident came and did the dressing change when it leaked, much to my relief. But an hour later, it leaked again. I've never changed an ostomy bag, especially one this complicated, and had to scramble to find someone to help me. I found someone and we got it done... in about 45 minutes, dressed in extremely stifling plastic gowns because the patient was VRE precautions.

Still, the patient was very grateful and wanted to fill out a 'You're super' for me (patients can fill these out and we get a certificate and a pin each quarter if we receive one).

I think I have my team for the Nepal trek. I'm hoping for permission to take a total of four nurses, including myself, from day shift, and at least one from night shift. I also have three nurses from other units.

The inauguration of our new president brought hospital staff together... I bonded with the transporter over our mutual excitement. Usually, they don't even talk with us nurses. I think it's been an amazing experience, and so many african americans have been talking with everyone now, instead of just with each other. It's made me happy that we are uniting like this, and crossing racial lines.

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