A Day in my life

 We've made it through the first month of 2021 and here we are in February!  Here's how I spent the first day of the month.

Monday is always a work day for me.  We have two doctors that see our residents, and one physician assistant.  On Mondays, that doctor that does admissions sees people.  We had a very busy weekend with admissions, so I knew it was going to be a busy day.

I went in a little earlier than usual because of the busy day, and arrived at 7am.

This is in our entry - a pretty amazing thing.  This is something we got because of covid.  We used to have an electronic thermometer, but when staff has to be checked when coming and going, and also every 4 hours, you go through probe covers and thermometers quickly.  For this, you just put your face in front of it, so it fits into the outline you see.  It will then tell you your temp.  If you don't have a mask on, it tells you to put on a mask.  We then have to sign in, put down our temp, fill out a checklist with symptoms, sanitize our hands and put on a K95 mask.  Then we can enter the building.

Here's my hall, it has offices and the therapy room.  As you can see, I was the first one there - the room with the light at the end is my office.

I started by gathering information about our new residents.  Paperwork from the hospital, current orders, labs, vitals, if they are alert and orientated, how much assist they need to transfer and do their care.  Once I have all that, I fax the info to the Dr.  He still can't come into the building, so he gets that info and checks everything out, then calls me to do a Skype visit.

When I got done with that, I started on some of my other paperwork and then went to our management meeting that happens every morning at 9:30.  We finished that meeting at 10:15.

At 10:30, the Doctor called and I went out on the floor to do the Skype visits.  He saw 4 patients, then gave me verbal orders for them.  I took care of those and then gathered information on another patient who had returned from the hospital.  He was going to be re-admitted by our Physician Assistant, so I faxed him that info.

Another thing I had to work on was covid testing.  I told you our Director of Nursing was having a knee replacement, which happened today.  She usually does all the covid tests but it's now my job until she comes back.  Our staff had been tested twice a week, but as of last week, the county said we could go down to once a week.

This is the actual covid test.  You have to do the nasal swab, then put it into a vial with some solution. Then you place 3 drops of that solution onto the bottom opening.  After 15 minutes, this is inserted into a machine which gives an immediate read out of positive or negative.  We are still happy to report no covid in our building!

Early in the afternoon, the PA called and I did another Skype visit. When that was done, I worked on paperwork for our new admissions.  For each one I have to put in labs orders, review vaccination history and enter it in 2 places on the electronic chart, document TB testing, do a bowel and bladder assessment and check the state opioid website.  Anyone who has been prescribed a narcotic is listed there with a score attached that tells how likely they are to overdose.  There is also a state website that tells the vaccination history for anyone who has had any vaccinations which is where I find out that history.  I have to get signatures from our residents on some of these forms and I also have to take a photo to attach to the electronic medication orders, so the nurse can identify them.

I then did some paperwork that the Director of Nursing usually does, so it was a long day.

I left shortly before 6, and stopped at the grocery store on the way home.  Our local store offers something called Fast Lane, where you order your groceries online.  They shop for them and bring them out to your car.  A years subscription was $29 which I thought was a great bargain for the time it saves me.

I love that it was still light at that time!

While I was waiting for my groceries to come out, I saw this sun dog in the sky.  Can you see the little rainbow type spot in the sky?  They show up when it's cold and the light shines through ice crystals in the air.

Bob had a men's dinner at church so I didn't have to worry about supper.  I drove through Arby's and picked up a salad for myself.

As I drove home, the sun was setting. Such a pretty sky!

I got home and put my groceries away, then ate this salad.  It's the roasted chicken salad and it was really good.

After supper I cleaned up the kitchen, made lunches and ran the dishwasher.  The sun was nearly set and the sky was beautiful!

Then I hopped in the shower, and relaxed!  I'm watching Kids Baking Championship as I type this, and am enjoying a quiet evening.
Hope you all had a nice first day of February too.