Good Night, Nurse!

Okay, maybe the cartoon isn't all that funny, but this is sometimes how we feel.

Last night I felt like my brain fell out and went running away on vacation when I checked my outpatient and diagnosed her at 8 cm's, then 9.5, THEN I had her start pushing....Only to have another RN tell me later that the patient was 4-5 cm's. Oh well. At least she wasn't pushing for too long before we noticed.

She had come in, and the very first thing she screamed down the hallway was, "Where's my $#%S epidural????!!!!" (That's always just a LITTLE intimidating to a nurse...Makes for a long night.) So, I had a little bit of a hard time checking her because she was moving a bit. Apparently missed checks happen pretty regularly to other nurses, but it was a first for me. The good news is she was able to get the epidural she had wanted, and the delivery went smoothly, albeit later than planned. One of the midwives told me that I won't be a REAL L&D nurse until I check a patient, diagnose her at 10 cm's, have everyone come RUNNING into the room for delivery, only to have the doctor check her and tell the mom that her cervix is closed. THAT hasn't happened yet; I can't say that I look forward to that particular day.

Ah, a day off!!! Well, another week survived, and with it I was able to find some humor in several situations. (Not for our patients, of course, but for the nurses.) I think the other nurses have finally started noticing my accident-proneness. I turned in my little unit cell phone this a.m. Somewhere along the way during the night I managed to lose the back of it. And this morning when I turned it in, I knocked most of the other phones off of the counter. And then I managed to spill tea all over myself so it looked like I wet my pants. Hmmmm....I wonder if I could blame that on a patient?