Things I can't live without/wish I had
So I've been tagged by PixelRN. Without futher ado, here is my list.
The four things I cannot live without:
1. The coolest pharmacist in the world. T. is our unit pharmacist, and she rocks it like no other. She is buzzing around all the time, keeping track of all those little things nurses and physicians sometimes lose in the midst of everything. Her incredible knowledge base and fantastic cooperative attitude make our patients safer and my work a more joyful place.
2. Dr D. This is the kind of attending who spends hours in family meetings her first day on service. When D. is on, families and patients are not regarded as an afterthought, somehow disconnected from the task of maintaining physiological stability at all costs. Not only are her people skills fantastic, but clinically she is top-tier. I'm not sure exactly when she does it since she is always on the unit, but sometime she is busy reading up on the latest ideas. D. listens to patients, families, nurses, and respiratory therapists. She listens, period.
3. Skin prep. It sometimes keeps my patients from literally falling to pieces, and keeps those central line dressings intact just a few more hours when the patient is an oozy mess. I am a huge fan.
4. The therapy and security dogs. When I see them coming, I run for my Milk Bone stash in the break room!
5. An expert respiratory therapist. More than once I have been majorly rescued by a super-RT. Their specialized knowledge is invaluable, and when we work together we are amazing!
Okay, so that was five. Too bad.
Now, what do I covet? Honestly, many many things. If I must pick one, it shall be this:
A culture change, so that we might stop regarding death as the ultimate enemy and put pain and suffering in that place instead. How things, then, might be different.
I'm really glad PixelRN tagged me. As I started putting down all the things I cannot live without, I realized just how many things I love about my work enough to share them with others. The list is a lot longer than five!
Now, I shall tag PaedsRN at Cricoid Pressure and TC at donorcycle.
posted by MICU RN @ 11:36 AM
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9 Comments:
Well done!
We have an attending in our MICU that sounds a lot like your Dr. B. We also have a kick-ass pharmacist. She keeps the residents in line when they start going hogwild with the antibiotics.
I wish we had therapy dogs, though. That would make my day.
Thanks for the tag...it's up at my site. The weird thing about coming to this site is that it's the same colors as mine and every time I hit the link I think there's something wrong with teh internets because I don't think the page has changed. Plus, I haven't had caffeine yet, so the words are all fuzzy.
Did you know that my blog name is MICU RN too? How does that happen?
check out the new Trauma Care blog. we invite your input.
traumatech.blogspot.com
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Who can we enlist for support about your suggested culture change? Would the American Nurses Association be an ally to issue an annual report regarding recommendations like this one? If so, let me know and I'll send an email with that request.
Onehealthpro
Why did you stop writing? I so enjoyed reading what you had to say!
"A culture change, so that we might stop regarding death as the ultimate enemy and put pain and suffering in that place instead. How things, then, might be different." Put me on the boat with you. Bdrn-a 25 year Icu nurse.
Hi,
Since I couldn't find your e-mail address, I thought I'd ask this question in a post.
I was wondering if you'd be interested in posting any articles from the Nursezone.com website. There are lots of relevant articles for todays nurse. The great news is that using nursezone content on your site is no cost. We'd just like to have a link back to our site for those of your bloggers interested in finding a community of nurses, CE opportunities, travel nursing and other relevant nurse aids. A partial example of a nursing article is below:
Nurse Overcomes Cancer—Twice—to Provide Care to Others
By Nancy Deutsch, RN, contributor
Many people yearn to make nursing their career, but few have to battle the odds like Valerie Bush.
The Independence, Kentucky, woman, who was a medical technician for six years and a nurse’s aide “on and off forever,” waited until her children were raised to return to nursing school. When she finally entered the Gateway Community and Technical College, it was unbelievably stressful. Not only was the single mother dealing with her course work, but her father died, and her youngest daughter was dealing with medical problems, including bipolar disease.
Bush, now 42 years old, was “disgustingly healthy when I started” school in 2004, but quite overweight, and she started to lose a lot of the extra girth.
“I lost massive amounts of weight in just a few months,” she recalled. “I was a pretty big girl. I lost 100 pounds.”
At first, Bush chalked up the weight loss and constant belching to stress, but when she shed all the weight, she found a lump in her breast. “I decided to see a doctor over break.”
Bush was diagnosed with DCIS, and beneath that, metastatic breast cancer.
“I lost everything in a week,” Bush said. The diagnosis sent her daughter off the deep end, upset her boyfriend, and meant she had to stop the classes she had waited so long to take.
“As a nurse, you think you know what a cancer diagnosis entails,” she said. “But you don’t. It affects every single thing in your life.” … (more article to come)
© 2007. AMN Healthcare, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Let me know what you think.
Tracy (nursezoneportal@earthlink.net)
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