It was a bumpy ride this morning shift. Four nurses were on sick leave, and the ward could not call back any one else to come and help out. They had no choice but to let me play the role of an assistant nurse in the intensive care unit; for the first time without direct supervision.
It is because of today that I realise how capable the nurses in this unit are, or how much harder I need to work in order to(if ever possible) be on par. The workload was reasonable but I still could not complete my tasks on time.
In the ICU, most of the patients have a tube that goes into the stomach for the purposes of feeding. Part of the care of such tubes involves checking the placement by means of aspirating stomach contents to be tested with pH papers. Since gastric juices are acidic, we know that a patient's nasogastric tube is in the right place as long as acidic contents can be withdrawn out. According to the hospital's practice, nurses are required to check the tube placements every four hours. Generally, the assistant nurses in the ICU do it; so I did it today, but my speed was far from that of any of the experienced assistant nurses. The above was only one of the tasks that I was slow in performing this morning shift.
On a whole, I kept on forgetting things and had to finish whatever I missed later than whenever I was supposed to. The distractions did not help either.
Flying solo was not easy today. Appreciating the nurses whom I "follow" even more now.
I am new, but it is not an excuse to be lousy at work!
It is because of today that I realise how capable the nurses in this unit are, or how much harder I need to work in order to(if ever possible) be on par. The workload was reasonable but I still could not complete my tasks on time.
In the ICU, most of the patients have a tube that goes into the stomach for the purposes of feeding. Part of the care of such tubes involves checking the placement by means of aspirating stomach contents to be tested with pH papers. Since gastric juices are acidic, we know that a patient's nasogastric tube is in the right place as long as acidic contents can be withdrawn out. According to the hospital's practice, nurses are required to check the tube placements every four hours. Generally, the assistant nurses in the ICU do it; so I did it today, but my speed was far from that of any of the experienced assistant nurses. The above was only one of the tasks that I was slow in performing this morning shift.
On a whole, I kept on forgetting things and had to finish whatever I missed later than whenever I was supposed to. The distractions did not help either.
Flying solo was not easy today. Appreciating the nurses whom I "follow" even more now.
I am new, but it is not an excuse to be lousy at work!
