A day at work

Most of you have read posts in which I mention my job. I am a nurse at a long term care facility. We do have crazy days at times and there are frustrations in dealing with state inspectors and corporate workers, but for the most part, I really love what I do.

Recently Bonnie did a post where she took us through her day. I thought I would do a small version of that, so when I talk about my job, you can get an idea of what it looks like.

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I get up at 5 am on my work days, spend some time on the treadmill, hop in the shower, have some devotion time, eat breakfast and drive to work. I'm lucky to live close to work and only have a 10 minute drive in. This was the beautiful sunrise I was greeted with, shortly after arriving this morning.

When we are full we have 60 patients. We have 2 nurses on and 6 aides. We also have a bath aide and 2 rehab aides. The nurse aides start earlier than we do and are already working. We nurses start our day by doing a narcotic count. This ensures that anything that has been given is correctly signed out. It also guards against any nurses taking the medication themselves. We have been blessed by not having that kind of problem, but it does go on, so these measures need to be taken. We then listen to a taped report that tells us how all of our residents have done during the evening and night, and brings up any concerns we need to talk to our Dr about.

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After report we start our morning med pass. This is the biggest job of the day. The majority of medications are given at this time. There are also blood sugars to be checked and insulin to be given. We go down the hall with our med carts and give the meds to people as they get up. Most of the medication is ordered for 8:30 am. We have a window of 1 hour before and 1 hour after in which to give these meds. On the top of the med cart you can see the book we use which has all the residents med orders in. To the right of it is something with a blue handle. It is used to crush medications for people who are unable to swallow pills. We use applesauce to give the crushed pills in.

After med pass, we help pass out the breakfast trays.

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This is my friend and co-worker Nancy, at our nurses station. There are 2 computers here, where we do all of our charting. We can usually be found here, doing paper work after breakfast trays are passed. We have a book that has all of our treatments in it, that needs to be signed for each resident. These are things like wound care, oxygen, measuring ankles (for people with congestive heart failure) and other things like that.

After breakfast, we try to do treatments that are needed that day and check in on our residents again. It's usually about 11:30 by this time, which is when we take our 30 minute break. I didn't think to take a picture of our break room, but you're not missing anything exciting!

After lunch, it's time for another med pass and a few blood sugar checks. There are not nearly as many as the earlier one and it only takes 30 to 40 minutes. We then are back at the computers, trying to chart. Charting isn't an exciting thing to do but it's important!

During this time we also get a call from our doctor. He calls every day to see if there are any problems or issues he needs to deal with. Any orders he gives, need to be entered into the computer. We also use this time to finish our other miscellaneous tasks and do another check on our residents.
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This is the view we have from our nurses station. In the afternoon, the residents like to gather here and it can be quite a busy place!

The next shift arrives a few minutes before 3 pm and before we leave, we do another narcotic count and pass on any information they will need. If it's been a good day we are able to leave a few minutes after 3. It's usually about 3:15 but can be quite a bit later depending on what's happening.

I'm usually home by 3:30, in time to do something about supper and often start a load of laundry. Then I log onto my computer and check in with all of you!

I hope this wasn't too long or boring, and gave you a little glimpse into my day!