NURSE POCKET

Hey everyone! Today was a busy day, but not terrible by any means. The hospital census is sooo low. That is apparently normal for the summer. I am getting called off tomorrow even! I had 6 rooms, but only 3 of them were full. I only received one new admit on my shift! Insane. Actually, I did take report around 1830 on a patient from med-surg who was completely a unit patient. Actively seizing, continuous eeg, no gag reflex, unresponsive...only 60. Came in with pneumonia, AMS, and VRE! The nurse kept saying over and over how she tried to get the MD to write the order for ICU, but he said no. I told my charge nurse and she worked her magic. Around 1915, she said the patient was going to the unit! I can't imagine having 6 rooms with one patient as critical as that. That is just not safe. I'm happy for the next shift anyway.
My other patients diagnoses included: CHF (dyspnea), pneumonia with MRSA, hypokalemia with acute renal failure, syncope--unwitnessed fall, which turned out to be fractured hip, of course (she was 98 and only like 65 lbs)...


GREAT NEWS TODAY
I got promoted to Clinical Nurse II (CNII)!! It was my ultimate goal before applying for CCIP and I did it! I also will get a 5% raise, which is great because I am getting a 3.5% raise at the end of July based on my yearly. 8.5% raise, I'll take it.

I took some pictures before work today since I realized I have none in my uniform, which is a shame, of course. I don't know why it came out so blue, sorry about that!







So,
I know you're just dying and wondering to know: what does Nurse Nicole carrying around in all her pockets at work? bahaha.



Definitely alcohol swabs! Followed by flushes, alligator clips for the 32423424 times that I need to hook and unhook someone from their IV's, scissors, tape, clicky pens, highlighter, erasable marker, tele calipers (for measuring my ecg strips), and then of course I always have my work phone! I used to keep my brain sheet (ie-cardex with notes) folded and in my pocket, but I found I kept putting it down and losing it or leaving it in a chart accidentally, so now I use a clipboard. It's much more convenient.

Just wanted to add one of my favorite pics for a smile.