Just to keep things balanced:

I tend to blog when I am fed up, worn out, ticked off, or feeling dumped on... so I thought tonight I should do a more "the glass is half-full" type of blog.

I just worked a short shift (3p-7p) at work. I got handed a new admission from the ER who could not speak or swallow, had a heartrate in the 120s, and had a bag of IV antibiotics laying on the bed... hooked up to IV access that was not patent. Although family members had been present in the ER, no one had bothered to initiate the admission history, find out this patient's baseline as far as communication and swallowing go, or to even make sure an IV pump was available.

So I started to dig myself out of this hole. I got a new IV started (thought I admit, I did not do that myself!), got a pump, got new tubing, and got that antibiotic hanging as it should be. I checked the orders written in the ER and noted that the drip rate at which her bag of fluids was running was incorrect. I did a little detective work and found out that IV Lasix had been given, though not signed off in the doctor's orders. I got an order to discontinue the chewable TUMS that this patient clearly could not handle, and an order for a swallowing evaluation by speech therapy... after completing a nursing swallowing screen. I also had other patients to tend to, one of whom was in an isolation room, and another of whom was getting blood.

But by the time 7:30 rolled around, I was out the door! Woo hoo! How exciting is that?