"Off" Days

So, dear blog readers, I think all of us (unless you're in denial) can think of days where you just aren't functioning quite up to par. Perhaps it's when your computer is slow, you're frantically trying to get your deadlines finished, or you delete/lose a much-needed file/e-mail and you spend inordinate amounts of time trying to find it back. Perhaps it happens when you have a job interview and you find you have a flat tire or that the bus/train is running 30 minutes late (after you get on board). If you can't relate to these sorts of situations, this blog post is not for you.

For me, for example, "off" days seem to hit when I'm in the kitchen. The other day, for example, I was trying to make a french dish (gotta love Barefoot Contessa!), and I usually can't focus on three burners at once. Especially if there's another person in my kitchen. So, needless to say, I turned the wrong burner down to "low" heat and the rice continued cooking on high heat and burned to the bottom of the pan. The empty burner continued heating on low heat until I noticed a burned plastic smell and realized some of my ingredient containers were melting. Ay! What a night. The dinner did turn out after some mild frustration, but you get my drift. (And no, I really DO enjoy being in my kitchen, and I usually am not a threat to burning down the rest of the building.)

So, as you can imagine, nurses have "off" days, too. For those of you who have to be at the receiving end of healthcare, it might not give you the warm fuzzies to read these sorts of things, but they happen none-the-less. The following is an example of "offness" that might happen to a nurse, but it might not be part of my actual experience. (Ahem.)

One example of "offness" that might strike when you're a nurse is starting an IV. This might happen when you're admitting a patient by yourself or if you're helping another nurse admit their patient. A conscienscious nurse might go a little overboard and leave the cap on the end of the IV line so as not to contaminate the line while starting an IV. Nurse might put a pad under the patient's hand or arm so as to contain any mess that might be made while starting an IV. Now, when a nurse is having an "off" day, starting the IV goes something like this.

Okay. Needle in; bevel up; good flashback. Pull needle out. Good stick in a great vein; blood starts flowing out while you're reaching for the IV line to connect it to the IV hub. Dang: the cap won't come off the end of the line. One hand puts pressure on the IV site to keep it from bleeding more; the other hand has to play superman to get the stupid cap off. Drat. No other nurse in the room to loosen it for you. Glove getting slippery. Okay; there goes the cap. Finally! Oops; IV canula starting to come out a little bit! Connect the line to the port. Good. IV flushing beautifully. In reality, it took about 10 seconds to do all this, but since there are people watching, it feels like an eternity. Now to clean up the pt's hand: where's the gauze? Aw man, knocked it on the floor while battling with that stubborn cap! Well, it's time to tape up the IV; get a wash cloth to clean up when it's all done. Tape won't stick. Dang. Well, it's taped good enough for now. Time to joke with the patient about what great veins she had, and that the IV is in and she doesn't have to get poked again. That should count for something, right? Only one poke? You stand up and get some new gauze and a wash cloth to wipe up the patient's hand. As you're cleaning up, you realize that the clever pad you put under the arm/hand got missed and there is a mess all over the linens. Gotta change those; poor family member is getting woozy. You realize they're looking at your pant leg, and when you look down, you realize that you have what amounts to about a half pint of blood on your clothes. Well, at least it's 30 minutes before quitting time, but you can't go to the store like this as planned. Instead you have to go home and change. Time to go find out who the next nurse for the upcoming shift is going to be and reassure the patient what a great nurse that person is, and how much experience they have.

So, for all of you who have ever wondered at the competence of your health care providers, they may be great, but might just be having an "off" day like the rest of us.