Happy November! Here's what I did on the first day of the month.
The weather has really changed in the past few weeks. It's cold in the morning! I couldn't get a clear shot, but the thermometer in my car said 32 degrees when I left for work at 7am,
I got to work at 7:15 (it's so nice to have a short commute!). This hall is the therapy hall and also has some offices, including mine. There was only one therapist here when I arrived, so it was still dark.
Here's the view from the end of our hall once the sun started to rise.
I start the morning by going to our long term wing and skilled nursing wing to check each nurse and make sure everything is going ok. I also check for any labs that have come overnight and go over any notes that nurses have left for me.
I have a few things I need to audit every day so I check those things, and also run off a report of any nurses notes and new orders for the last 24 hours. I review them to make sure everything is entered correctly and to see if there is anything that needs to be followed up on.
At 9:30 we have a daily meeting with the Administrator, Director of Nursing, Social worker, maintence, Dietician, Admissions, Activies, Business Office... We review the admissions, discharges, any issues, things that need to be done, activities coming up... We then go over all the notes that I printed earlier in the morning. This meeting takes about an hour.
When this was done I worked on orders for a new admission that was coming in the afternoon, entered lab orders for the next week, ordered supplies for our residents on tube feedings, with trachs, or other medical equipment.
On Fridays, we try to have lunch together and on this day our marketing director had been out and picked up lunch for us from Panera Bread. I had tomato soup in a bread bowl. Yum!
One of the big parts of my jobs is being the infection control nurse. I track every resident who is on an antibiotic; the reason why, which bug, where the infection is, the symptoms, what we are doing to monitor it and the dates the infection started and when it was cleared. I also map out the infections to make sure nothing is being spread from resident to resident. I do the same for employees, then each of these things get entered into a computer program.
At the beginning of each new month, I have to close out the month before, compare infection rates from month to month and then get all the paper work ready for the next month. I worked on this for several hours.
There were several interruptions, we had a resident pass suddenly which is always hard. I also had 2 family members come to see me and it was nice to catch up with them. This is the norm in this job. You get close to residents and their families, it's sad when they pass and then it's always a blessing when family comes back to say hi.
I got out early on this day. I usually am there till 5, but I was out at 3.
I stopped and had a badly needed haircut! That didn't take long, and I had a few other errands to run.
I stopped at the post office...
and then a quick stop at the grocery store.
I drove home about 4:30. It was quite cloudy out.
I got home and did a little straightening out. I also got some presents ready (the pink bags) because we were having a birthday party that evening.
At 6:00 Laura, Aaron, Alaina and Ruby, and also Heather and Andrew came over for a party for Alaina and Ruby.
We had pizza and cider, and later donuts and ice cream. Of course there were birthday presents, some games and lots of laughter!
After the party was done and they all went home, Bob and I relaxed and then went to bed about 11.
What a fun day!
