The nursing shift!

As promised, I'll now give you an update on what the nursing shift was like.

Well to start with there was waking up at stupid o'clock in the morning (yes I got an early shift...). Once that was over with I just had to find the ward, and where the handover was taking place. A whistle-stop tour of all 24 patients later and off I was trailing the nurse who I was going to shadow and assist.

Thank goodness for nurses.

I never really appreciated all that their job entails until today. It's the simple things (such as the hourly observations) that just stack up and up on top of whatever else the doctors pile on them. Who needs what - and at what time? It also seems that most of the nurses are pharmacists. They dispense all of the medication, know who should be having how much of what, and getting it to the patients on time.

Then there are the not so pleasant jobs. Those jobs none of us would want to do. Clearing up bodily fluids from any orifice you wish to think of. Taking racist comments from elderly patients. Changing the catheters. All things which need to be done (particularly on a gastroenterology ward), but that everyone does their upmost to avoid.

No-one ever thinks about patients who get sick in jail. Well, they need hospital treatment just like anyone else, so there was a prisoner on the ward today presenting a new set of challenges. Such as what would the guard (who was handcuffed to him) do when he went for a scan.

You have to admire the sheer volume of work the nurses do on a daily routine, as well as the technical complexity of some of it (such as working the temperamental equipment). They've also got to be vigilant as to when a patient is deteriorating, and when they need to see a doctor.

 I've come out of this shift with a new appreciation for the profession. And I'm sure you won't hear me say 'but she's only a nurse' for a little while yet, until I'm qualified of course...