I started precepting today. And what a day it was. I'm in the Cardiac Specialty Unit at Good Samaritan in Puyallup. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but today was certainly interesting.
I didn't sleep great, because I was nervous and Mike was back with his snoring ways. 5am came along very early. I hate commutes almost as much as I hate early mornings, but I will admit it was a beautiful drive with the sun rising next to Mt. Rainier. Of course just the fact that the SUN was rising (and you could see it) was a novelty since it's only the 5th sunny day of the whole year, or something like that.
We started out with three patients. One with influenza and pneumonia, one with chest pain and alcohol withdrawal, and another one I can't even remember.
The first one went in to respiratory distress right away, and ended up transferring to the ICU shortly thereafter.
The second one was just DONE. When we got back from the ICU, the patient was dressed and packed, and almost walked out the door with the telemetry monitor and IV still in. Thankfully, we managed to get them before they walked out the door as well. But we weren't able to stop the patient from leaving.
We finally took a short break and when we returned we had another withdrawal pt who was having severe respiratory issues. We got that patient started on an IV drip that was SUPPOSED to help with the withdrawal symptoms and went back to discharge our third pt from the start of the day.
My preceptor got her "lunch" break at 4:15. When we got back to the floor, our withdrawal patient was not doing well at all. We ended up calling a code so that the hospitalist could intubate. That patient went to the ICU on a ventilator.
So we ended the day with just one chest pain patient who arrived at some point in all of the insanity, and a whole lot of documentation. They all said it was an unusually crazy day, I guess we'll see. Overall, I liked Good Sam. Their equipment is updated, the staff is helpful, my preceptor was great, and I learned quite a bit. I came home with a bunch of stuff to look up about cardiac drugs, labs, and treatment. Looking forward to taking a patient next time!
2 comments:
I think I'll have to watch more Grays so I can understand what the heck you're talking about : ) but I'm glad you enjoyed your first day!
Woohoo, what a start! It does sound interesting though. I can't imagine the drugs, etc that are out there now compared to 35 years ago. It's hard, but you can't worry about the ones who walk out. Just pray for everybody, do your best for them and leave them with God. It makes such a huge difference to the patient and family to have somebody who they know cares. I love reading your posts! :-)
Post a Comment