I've decided to start a series (and an inconsistent one, I'm making no promises as to how often I'll actually post) about what it's like to be a nurse/nursing student, and to share some of the knowledge I've gained and the experiences I've had.
I've always felt like it's fun to hear about what others do for their careers and how it has shaped them as a person. We spend so much of our time at work, and it really does become a huge part of who we are. That's why it is so important to do work that you feel passionate about, and I feel passionate about nursing, and I want to share that with my 1, maybe 2 readers (Hi, mom!).
Let's start with a little background. Hi my name is Hannah and I've been a licensed practical nurse since February 2016, I'm currently an RN student set to graduate next spring. Since obtaining my nursing license I've worked as a floor nurse at a skilled rehab and nursing facility.
OK so what is a skilled rehab and nursing facility?? Basically my patients are individuals (mostly old people) who are too ill or too weak to go home after a hospital stay. Maybe the had surgery, maybe the had a severe illness, in either case they are not well enough to take care of themselves yet, but the hospital doesn't want to keep them anymore. So they send them to us! I have a love/hate relationship with my job. I LOVE it because of the great variety of patients and diagnoses that I get to see, and I get to use a lot of different nursing skills. My patients vary from those who had some type of orthopedic surgery (knees, hips) who don't need a whole lot of nursing care, but are there more for the rehab/therapy (those are my easy patients!), to some patients who are still pretty ill and require round the clock IV antibiotics, nasogastric tube feedings, wound dressing changes, etc. etc.
My day starts at 0600 in the morning when I sit down for report with the NOC shift nurse. We go down a list of all our patients, discussing needs, changes, orders, etc. It is the time for the previous nurse to hand off the patients to me so I can take over their care for the day.
I'm then given the keys to the nursing cart and at that point I'm the one responsible! A typical patient load for me on a given day varies from 12-16 people. That's 12-16 people I have to administer all their medications to, follow up on labs that are drawn, coordinate their care with any specialists they may go see that day, do their wound care/treatments, complete head to toe assessments on and follow up on any new needs, orders or issues that may come up that day. Not to mention any skin assessments I have to do, or admissions that may come in, and of course all the charting! Oh the charting! I'm not going to lie, that amount of work for that amount of patients is extremely overwhelming. I think I can count like 2 shifts total out of my almost two years working that I have actually left work ON TIME.
Here's more of an hourly breakdown.
0600-0630: Report, count narcotics.
0630-0700: Look up labs to be drawn that day, treatments, and appointments with any specialists my patients have.
0700-1030: Review vital signs, morning med pass (my LEAST favorite part of the day!!) If I'm really on top of it I will get my head-to-toe assessments done during my med pass, but that's only if all the stars align, which they typically don't.
1030-1200: Charting, following up on new issues and problems with patients. More assessments. Treatments. Lunch time insulin.
1200-1400: Rounding with physician, NPs, inputting new orders from rounds or from outside specialist appointments. Treatments, charting.
1400-1600: Treatments! Charting, afternoon medpass.
1600-1800: Dinnertime medpass. Treatments, charting.
1800-1830: Report
That would be a perfect ideal day.
A REAL day would also have this added...
1800-????? Catching up on charting, inputting orders, finishing admissions, completing anything else I may not have had time for earlier in the day.
That my friends, is a very simple breakdown of what a typical day looks like as a rehab nurse! I wish it truly were that simple, haha.
Hopefully that wasn't the most boring post of all time for you guys, I promise I will post more exciting things about disease processes and stuff for future installments.
My goal for this series is to educate and inform people about what a nurse is and what they do, and also to share cool stories (while being HIPAA compliant, of course) and to share interesting information about disease processes and the human body!
Let me know if there are any questions you guys have too and I will try to answer them as best I can :)
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