July is here! It's been an unusual year to say the least, but we're halfway through.
July 1 was a normal Wednesday at work for me. Here's a few photos of my day.
7:10 - I'm on the way to work. When it's nice out, I usually take the back roads in. It's so much prettier!
The sun is up, it looks like it's going to be a beautiful day!
I have a short drive in and arrive at 7:20. Here's my desk, ready for the day.
I brought my refrigerator oatmeal with me for breakfast and ate it while I was doing my initial paperwork. I have a few things I always do right away. I check the pharmacy website where I get notifications on any medications that insurance is denying. (This is quite frustrating and happens far too often. And often they don't tell us what they will cover. We need to order another med and then hope it's covered). See that mask? I have to wear one every time I step out of my office, but at least I can take it off when I'm in it.
Another thing I do is check skin assessments. Every resident needs one done a week and is on a schedule. I need to check all the ones that were done the day before to make sure there are no problems.
I then go to both units, check in with the nurses to see how everything is going and if there are any concerns.
On this day our PA was going to be doing a few admissions, so I got history's, labs, vitals, hospital records together and faxed them to him. Because of Covid, they are still not allowed in the building, so all visits are done via Skype. This means they can't look at the chart and it needs to be faxed.
At 9:30 we have a managers meeting which I won't bore you with because you've heard about it before. It happens every day and takes about 45 minutes. When that meeting is done, the director of nursing, the assistant director of nursing and myself stay and check scheduling and any nursing issues.
After this, I reviewed some things I need to order. I'm in charge of making sure we have what we need for feeding tubes, catheters, tracheostomy supplies and other ostomy supplies. I put in an order each week.
Shortly after 11 the PA called and said he was ready to see the admissions.
This is another result of Covid. This is a section of our rehab wing. The whole section is in isolation because any new admissions have to be in isolation for 2 weeks. We don't accept anyone who has it, and they have to test negative before coming, but there is always a chance that they were exposed in the hospital and could still develop it. So far - we have had no cases!
Here's a close up of the sign. PPE is Personal Protective Equipment. Before we can enter this area we have to put on a N95 mask, goggles, gown, gloves. It's very time consuming and the sad side effect is that the people who are in this section don't get staff dropping in to see them, like they do in the regular rooms.
So I got all my PPE on and went in, then called the PA and we saw a few people. Then it all needs to come off and hands get washed coming out.
I made notes on the visit, put in new orders, updated families and scanned all the PA notes into the chart.
Here's what my desk looks like in the middle of the day - lots of papers and notebooks on it!!
Here's something that was happening in the afternoon. Our state is now making us test each resident and staff member weekly. I'll tell you we aren't real happy about it. We are already screening people every 4 hours, including staff and have had no covid. If anyone had it or even had symptoms, it would make more sense. This is not a fun test, and for people with dementia it's very scary. They don't understand why someone is putting something up their nose, and they are already having so many changes because of this - no visitors, supposed to stay 6 feet apart from everyone if they come out of their rooms, wear a mask if they come out... and they just don't understand it.
Anyway - I had to have my test, and help with some others. Each test had 3 sheets of paperwork that needed to be filled out. Covid is making a lot more work in many ways...
After that, I worked on ordering labs. I had to enter all the lab orders for the next month.
I then worked on some staff evaluations.
This is our enclosed patio. There are usually some people sitting out there, but it was very warm on this day, about 90 degrees in the afternoon, so we were keeping everyone in.
At 5:15 my day was done. I like to make sure my desk is cleaned off when I leave. I don't want to come back to a mess the next day!
Here's my ride home - down that same back road I took in the morning. Look at that sky!
I got home around 5:30. We had leftovers for supper so that was easy!
Bob had a men's group at church so he left about 6:15.
I took a walk around the yard and checked out the flowers.
Our climbing roses are full of blooms.
I made lunches for the next day and then relaxed. Bob made it home shortly after 8 and we went to bed around 10:30.
It was another good day!
