Lessons from a Monday

I worked a 12 hour shift today.  It was a good day.  Less stressful than the day I wrote about here, but still busy.  A good busy.  Not a I-have-no-idea-what-happened-in-the-past-12-hours busy.  We had a couple of admissions at the end of the shift which made for a very busy end of shift. 4 to 7 PM went by in 5 seconds flat and I accomplished about 20 things in that period of time in an ever-changing order of importance.

After work I drove to my son's club baseball tryouts and listened to the 11 year old version and 44 year old version of The Wallet and Tablet That Was Stolen From the Truck story.  I watched the 13 year old make a couple of great hits (or crush the ball as he would put it) and then drove the 11 year old home so he could be in bed before 10:30.

While I was driving home some small epiphanies were dawning on me:

1. It's so helpful to try and understand another person's point of view.  Trying to explain to a frustrated nursing assistant why I could understand her frustration with patient so-and-so but if she could just try to put herself in patient so-and-so's shoes she might be less frustrated, I realized what a gift it is to be able to be a nurse. A nurse gets patients of all kinds.  Patients are people.  They had moms and dads, whether they knew them or not.  They may or may not have kids.  They had jobs and previous battles with illness.  They may have estranged children and unconventional living circumstances.  They probably have a story behind their rudeness, or impulsivity, or confusion, or fear, or flat affect or foul smell.  Taking the time to listen to people (patients) takes time.  Time away from charting and tasks on the task list.  And that's ok.  Taking time to listen makes a difference in people's lives and makes us better people.  Nurses get to do that in a way most of us don't.  When the cashier is rude at the checkout we don't really have time to ask them about where they're from or if they have kids or why they are where they are.  But nurses do.  In fact, admitting a patient to the hospital can be a great exercise in listening and trying to understand another person.  It's a special opportunity.
2. One should never leave a wallet full of cash ($430 to be exact) and an electronic tablet sitting in an unlocked car at a high school while one drops one's child off at baseball practice.  This a mouth-full of humble pie for one who is a law-enforcement officer.
3. The Christian Church should be like a good nurse:  She seeks the wellness of those who come to her even if it seems to hurt them at times.  She does not condemn the broken ones who come to her for being broken.  She gives of herself to minister to them the orders of the Great Physician for their wholeness.  
4. My thoughts after reading 1 Peter- If you can't love and serve the foul-mouthed, arrogant, perverse, flippant, reckless cranks and jesters around you while refraining from the foulness, arrogance, perverseness, flippancy, complaining and levity they slander you for not joining them in, you haven't really begun to taste Christ in you.  Christ in you is what it means to be a Christian.  And Christ in you will compel you to lay down your life to love and serve others with grace and truth whether they malign you or praise you.  Whether they cherish you or take advantage of you.  Whether they treat you with respect or utterly disregard you. Because you want them to join you in the joy of being brought to God.   I've barely begun to taste and I want more.  It's crazy.

All on a Monday.

"For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God..." 1 Peter 3:18

Quieted,

Sheila

a 12 hour shift

(I have no pics of my work in rehab, so this image of working with a traumatic brain injury patient is from MSKTC.org )

I don't write about my work as a R.N. very often, mostly because there's so much that's confidential. But today I feel like I just need to process what happened in the 13 hours I spent at the hospital. Maybe I'll comprehend why my feet throb and my brain won't shut off and go to sleep.

I don't work in an E.R. or I.C.U. or any critical care conditions.  I work in an acute rehab unit.  Most nurses I work with yawn when they think about the nursing work in rehab.  You only have to chart an assessment once a shift.  No one's on a monitor.  You don't have very many patient's on I.V.'s.  And for the most part, the patients are stable.  So when I go home exhausted, feeling like I ran a marathon, my feet ache and I'm pretty sure I didn't document what happened all day very well, I feel a little like breaking down what it is I did all day and saying, "I know it's not critical care, but it's rehabilitative care and that is very labor-intensive and teaching intensive."

Tuesdays and Thursdays are conference days on my unit.  Every Tuesday and Thursday the patients individual situations are reviewed in a closed-door meeting of the PPS Coordinator (I still don't know exactly what that means but it's the RN who deals with medicare and justifying patients' needs for acute rehab), the Physiatrist (that's the rehab physician), the OT (occupational therapist), PT (physical therapist), SLP (speech language pathologist), CM (case manager), RN clinical manager, and RN caring for the patient.  Depending on how many patients are on the unit this meeting can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 hours.  Today it took 2 + hours.  This occurs while these same therapists and floor nurses are carrying a load of 4-6 patients on the floor that day and bouncing like ping pong balls in and out of the meeting to give their input on the patient, listen to the team's input, and come up with a potential discharge date.  Today I had 5 out of the 12 patients to bounce into this meeting to discuss, which meant my morning from 7 am to around 1pm went something like this:

1. Get report from two night shift nurses about my 4 patients and the 1 patient a float nurse (a nurse who came to care for patients on our floor but is not a staff member on our floor) has so I can know what's going on with that patient since I will be doing the conference on that patient (float nurses can't do conferences on patients on our floor).  
2. Sign into the EMR (electronic medical record) and begin documenting that I received report and what the fall risk and mobility score my patients are and what education I will be doing with them that day.
3. Review the chart for orders, notes from doctors from the previous day, labs, vital signs, test results and medications that are due.
4. It's now 8 am.  Conference begins at 10:30.
5. Visit each of my patients briefly to introduce myself.  Do a general assessment just by talking with them (Are they alert and oriented? Any pain? Any nausea? Are they constipated? Can they urinate? Do they need O2? Do they have any skin concerns/wounds?). Take some patients to the bathroom.  Get some of them out of bed.  Get some of them water.  Get some of their breakfast trays set up.  Call a CNA to come help pull someone up in bed.  
6. It's now 8:30 am.  Two hours till conference.
7. Go to the Pyxis (the machine that dispenses the medications) and begin pulling 9 am medications for my patients.  I pull the meds for 2 patients since they're on the same hall, place them in different bags, label them and set out to look for a WOW (a rolling computer kiosk that I push around all day from room to room to give medications with and document my care of the patients) that works.  (It's about a 50% chance that the WOW you pick will loose it's battery life halfway through scanning your patients meds so you hope to find the one you know keeps a charge). 
8. Answer the phone.  It's been ringing the whole time I've been in the Pyxis room getting meds and everyone else is either on the phone already or in a patient's room.  It's doctor so-and-so who wants to know who the nurse caring for patient such-and-such is?  I put him on hold.  Look for the assignment list.  Find the patient and their assigned nurse on the list.  Use the vocera (a clip-on phone device where anyone can get ahold of you anytime, anywhere as long as you've turned yours on and logged into it) to call the nurse who doesn't have a vocera.  I push my WOW to an outlet, plug it in and set out to find the nurse the doctor is holding for.  Finding the nurse, I stop to answer 2 call lights (call lights are patients pushing the red "nurse" button on the remote in their bed to get a nurse to come to their room), take an empty breakfast tray out of a room per the patients request and help a patient to the bathroom.
9. It's now 9:00 am.  I start passing my medications. 
10. In my first patients room I have a quick, easy assessment looking at wounds that are healing nicely, talking to a patient who's alert and oriented and has no new problems or complaints. But I do make note to follow up with the doctor about a question the patient had.  I pull out the meds, scanning the patients armband with a scanning wand exactly like the one in the self-checkout isle at Sam's Club.  It beeps.  The right screen pops up.  The computer confirms that I have the same patient that the patient reports to be by telling me their full name and birthday- I can proceed.  I scan each medication telling the patient what it is and what it's for if they don't already know.  The patient complains of constipation so I make a note to bring back a medication later to help with that.  I ask if there's anything else I can do and since there's nothing I let them know I'll be back to see them throughout the day and hand them their call light so they can reach me. On to the next patient.
11. It's now 9:15am.  My vocera goes off.  Dr. So-and-So is on the phone for me.  I push my WOW to an outlet, plug it in.  Walk to the nurse's station and answer the phone.  I give the Dr. a report on their patient, hang up and return to my WOW.  On to patient number 2.
12. In patient number 2's room I find a lot more to do.  The patient is in bed.  The breakfast tray is on a bedside table 10 feet away from the bed, and the room is dark.  I introduce myself.  Ask if the patient would like to get up and eat breakfast (In rehab we don't leave patients in bed for meals.  All patients, if at all possible, get out of bed for all meals).  I open the blinds to let some light in.  Patient #2 would like to get up.  I plug my WOW into the outlet in the patient's room, take the medications with me and set out to find a CNA or willing RN to help me transfer the patient (who requires 2 people to assist with transferring from bed to chair).  The nurse's station is empty, a phone is ringing, and 2 call lights are going off.  I answer the phone.  Patient such-and-such's family member would like to speak to the nurse caring for their loved one.  I place the person on hold, vocera the nurse and converse with a doctor who showed up at the nurse's station after exiting my patient's room.  We discuss some changes and I get orders for some thing's he'd like nursing to do for his patient.  I make a mental note and call for a CNA to help me with my patient.  Together we transfer this patient from their bed to the wheelchair.  I've performed some of my assessment in talking with the patient and transferring them.  I complete the assessment with a listen to their heart, lungs and abdomen and a few orientation questions: What's today's date? Where are you?  Why are you here?  I go on to ask about pain or any other issues or complaints.  The patient shares with me a couple of big concerns.  I note them on my "brain" (a piece of paper I scratch notes on all day) and begin scanning the patient's armband and medications.  I discuss the plan of care for the day and the changes the doctor wants implemented.  I ask if there's anything else I can do before I leave and then exit the room with a promise to return every 2 hours to carry out the new treatment ordered by the doctor.  
13. It's now 9:50.  I head to the Pyxis room to get medications for patients #3 and #4.  On my way into patient #3's room I'm flagged down by the WOC,RN (that's the Wound, Ostomy, Continence RN) who would like me to assist her in the assessment of wounds and dressing changes in Patient #2's room.  I let her know I'll meet her there in a few minutes.  I continue into Patient #3's room and perform my same routine of intro, asking questions, assessing the patients condition and discussing the plan of care for the day.  This discussion included plans for discharge today and the patient's concerns and questions about how it was going to happen. While discussing and assessing I was also scanning the patient's armband and medications to give them quickly knowing I was needed in the other room to address wounds.  I made quick notes on my "brain" about the patient's requests for PRN meds and asked if there was anything else I could do.  I left the room with a promise to return with the requested medications.
14. It's now 10:10.  Conference begins in 20 minutes and I still have a half a dozen wounds to address, another patient to give medications to and another patient (who wasn't my assigned patient) to assess so I could give some input on that patient in conference.  
15. I go back to Patient #2's room, assist the wound RN in undressing and redressing wounds.  We find more wounds that we were expecting.  I leave the patients room to go gather more wound care supplies, return to the room to finish what we started and get called out of the room via my vocera 20 minutes into our care: They are ready to start the conference.
16. I leave the wound nurse to finish what she's doing and head to the conference with my notes in hand.  It's 10:30.
17. 30 minutes later I emerge from the conference on my 1st of 5 patients and call for the next nurse on the list to trade me places.  Their turn to discuss their patient.  I leave the room with notes in hand about all the requests the doctor made for me to follow up and the concerns brought up by the therapy staff and case manager.  I set my notes face-down at the nurse's station and set out to patient #3's room.  

Ugh.  I'm tired already and it's only 11am on my recall of today's events.  What transpired from 11 am to 1 pm was a cacophony of call lights, phone calls, vocera calls, medications scanned and given, following up on things not done yet that were noted on the original visit to patient's rooms, intermingled with 4 more interruptions to go to the conference room and discuss my patient with the team.  By 1 pm the conferencing of our patients was over, I was hungry, and way behind on charting.  

In nursing there's a saying:  If it isn't charted, it didn't happen.  Every assessment, every discussion (which is education), every intervention, every phone call to or from a doctor, every order, every vital sign, every medication, every treatment, every meal, every drink, every void, every stool, every transfer, every change in position...every interaction with a patient must be charted in the electronic medical record- or it didn't happen.  I estimate it takes about 4 hours of accumulated time to chart throughout the day.  Most of it is interrupted charting.  Interrupted to care for patients.  Which must be charted. 

I took a lunch at about 2 pm with only my assessments charted.  Half hour later I returned to work on my patient's discharge from the hospital.  The case manger is usually the person who takes care of arranging the medical equipment, transportation, follow up appointments and facilities needed for a patient's discharge.  But sometimes those things fall on the floor nurse.  Today they fell on me.  From 2 to 7 pm, when my patient finally discharged from the hospital,  I was on the phone with various entities to work out complications in the discharge plans and needs so this patient could leave and go safely.  Those 5 hours were interrupted with giving medications, addressing wounds and assisting with my other patients needs along with answering call lights and more phone calls.  

At 7pm when the night shift showed up and I said goodbye to my patient who finally got to leave the hospital,  I hadn't even begun documenting all that was required for me to chart from the shift.   I gave report to the night shift nurses and then sat down to chart.  An hour and 15 minutes later I was done.  I had completed the required documentation... I think.   (Did I mention that in a rehab unit there is an entire additional hour or so of charting that medicare requires from nurses to justify a patient's stay in rehab?)

8:15ish PM I clock out.  Walk to my car.  Drive home exhausted.  And when I've said goodnight to my kids, showered and sat down to unwind before I go to bed, I feel my throbbing feet and recognize the questions still running through my mind, and I think, "What happened today??!"

If you're ever a patient in the hospital you should know your nurse is probably running her tale off.  If you see her at the nurse's station on a computer, she's not sitting there doing nothing.  She's trying to make sure what she really did today is documented so that if anyone goes looking, it happened.  If you have a good nurse she won't mind if you ask her what medications you're taking or question what she's giving you.  She'll be glad you are being an advocate for yourself and gladly tell you what you're taking and answer any questions you have.  She'll listen to you and talk with you and make sure you're doing ok and then she'll have to go back to her computer and punch keys and scroll through doctor's notes to make sure she's recording what really happened and doing what really needs to be done that day to make sure you get better.  

I would really like someone to invent a charting robot.  

Quieted,

Sheila

while my kids peruse the game section of the bookstore...

I'm sitting in Barnes and Noble watching a huge thunderstorm dump a ton of rain outside. I sort of wish I had stayed home and sat on my patio now.  If there's any redeeming factor to the unbearably hot summers in the Phoenix valley it's the summer monsoon storms.  I'm captivated by the power in the thunder and lightening and wind and dumping of massive amounts of water in minutes.

It's my third day off from working a long stretch at the hospital.  I made use of the first two days with household chores, errands and grocery shopping.  Today was a Goats Make Soap Co. day.  I finished a custom order of wedding party favors and made four batches of our top seller- Lavender Fields Forever, and a 5 pound batch of our Original soap.

Parenthesis: I think I'm sitting next to an invisible skunk or someone in this store has beat my 13 year old son in the stinky feet department cause there's no person within 20 feet of my position at this table at B&N and I'm dying here!  I may have to make this a short post.  Yuck.

Tomorrow I get to go to church.  I'm like Bono when it comes to church... I still haven't found what I'm looking for,  but I've decided I need to commit myself to loving a bunch of imperfect people in Jesus' name whether they do church the way I think is best or not.  But I do enjoy the time of sanctuary where I can sing and direct my affections and longings toward my God in harmony with the dozens of other broken people like me in the same room.

Starting in September my friend and neighbor are going to begin going to BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) on Tuesdays.  I was involved in a BSF for a couple years before I had children.  It was key in developing my Bible literacy.  I grew spiritually so much during that time.  Feeding on God's word really makes a huge difference!   It's been a dry year or so for me without a church and not in the Word as consistently as I need to be.  I'm really looking forward to just soaking my mind in Bible.

I've decided to go the custom order route with the soap biz.  Sometime tomorrow I'll start working on putting out an email blast and re-ordering the website to reflect the coming changes.  I'll finish the year with the current online store and planned soap shows, but starting in 2017 Goats Make Soap Co. with be custom, handmade, locally sourced goats milk soaps and lotions with options for custom orders and some in stock soaps online.  We will be doing a couple soap shows next year but not a weekly farmers market.

During a conference at work the other day I learned of Circle The City.  I'm very interested.  As soon as I go to part time I plan to investigate more.

I'm reading The Insanity of God right now.  Desiring to "go" as Jesus commanded to make disciples of all nations sounds glorious until your in the face to face horror of humanity's evils and no progress seems to be being made.  Going can mean staying too.  Staying in the inglorious marriage and head to head battles with kids.  Praying for that difficult-to-work-with person and making a point to serve them in some way.  There is a definite draw to leaving the mundane in exchange for the adventure of reaching the unknown and unreached.  But it's not glorious.  Any service can be turned upside down and inside out by pride and illusions of grandeur.  But really following Jesus because you love Him and you want to go where He leads and do what He says is an adventure with sure glory in the end and sure trouble along the way.  Knowing my Redeemer lives and with my eyes I shall see him and when I see him I'll be made like him... free from this sin-philic body.  I long.  He's worth it all.

Quieted,

Sheila

You Liberals think that goats are just sheep from broken homes. - Malcom Bradbury

I just threw that title in cause it's a crazy presidential election season, but I should have titled this post: We're giving up the goats.

Yep, you read correctly.  Our family's 3 plus year adventure with dairy goats is coming to an end.

If only had once sentence to explain why I'm doing this it would be this:

I believe God is leading me to use my time, resources and skills as a nurse to serve others in His name more.

*****I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY!  The above was the beginning of a long, thought-out post about why I've decided to give up the dairy goats in pursuit of more time available for serving God with my life as a nurse... or however He leads.  But, the Mac locked up and I had to force quite and that is all that's left!  I guess I don't need to post a long thought out post.  Deep sigh.

I guess I'll just post pics from our years with the goats and say, I'll miss the cheese and yogurt and milk.  I'll miss the kidding seasons and those floppy-eared personalities.  But I'm looking forward to laying aside the good to pursue the best in what God would lead me to do right now.

FYI:   For my soap customers and friends: I'll still be making soap.  Goats Make Soap Co. will have a new direction and operate a bit differently, but we'll still be making our amazing soaps.

“If we really have too much to do, there are some items on the agenda which God did not put there. Let us submit the list to him and ask him to indicate which items we must delete. There is always time to do the will of God. If we are too busy to do that, we are too busy.”

- Elisabeth Elliot 

“The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see.” - G.K. Chesterton

I'm tired and lots on my mind so I'm just gonna spill out a list of facts from the top of my head:

1. I drove approximately 5,000 miles in July.  Most of that in the first and last week of the month. 1,220 of it in the last 48 hours.
2. I think I'm legitimately car-sick.  Or driving-sick.  Or sick of driving.  I don't really want to move faster than a walking pace for the next 24 hours.
3. My 13 year old changed this month.  When I left him the first week of July with my sister and brother in law and nephews he was noticeably less mature than he is this week when I picked him up and drove him home.  He extended an open hand to his brother after offending him in a way that typically would have led to a full-fledged sibling argument and said, "Come on Ryland. Forgive me?  I've changed a lot this month.  I don't want to do this."  I had to deliberately act like I wasn't paying attention and keep my mouth from dropping open.  Lots of, "Yes mom."  And, "Ok mom."  And "Thank you mom."       Thank you Father!!
4. Sierra Bible Camp rocks!!  I will be sending my boys there every summer Lord willing. 
5. Sierra Bible Camp rocks!!!  I am planning and praying about serving as a cabin counselor there next year.
6. God is moving in the Anderson Church of Christ.  It's not the Church of Christ I grew up in.  Praise God!
7. My sister is a living testimony of the God who changes men's hearts.  She's full of joy, humility and love.  It's contagious and I love her!
8. Divorce really messes things up.  I hate it!  I'm thankful for the redemption that comes with knowing Christ but I hate the wake of destruction divorce leaves for generations.
9. If you need a place to stop and eat on the I-10 in Indio, California stop at the Kids Business or the TKB Deli and Bakery.  It's the bomb!!  My friend Mary suggested it and we stopped there on the way home.  Worth the stop.  You won't regret it.
10. If you program your GPS for Sierra Bible Camp you'll end up in the woods in the mountains in Nor Cal.  Don't do it.  
11. It's really hard to be far from family.  
12. My mother-in-law has been in the hospital for 20 something days. She's very ill.  I only got to spend a little time with her while I was there and my husband will be going to see her soon. Please pray for her.
13. School starts the day after tomorrow.  Last year of middle school for Connor.  
14. Some major lifestyle changes are on the cue for the Dougal family.  Coming soon.

I'm beyond tired.  God is good.  That is all.

Quieted,

Sheila