yesterday was an uneventful shift, for the most part. Sure I had a slew of discharges, trouble with a dim-witted resident and a fat lazy social worker who made arrangements for a discharge and the family informed me of the details. But, nothing that caused me to throw a girl scout tantrum.
I have been all over this hospital as a float nurse and I am starting to see some differences. Not just differences in skill level or work load, but differences in which un its have the most fun people.
The cardiac critical care units (CVICU & CCU) have the most fun people. Everyone gets along with everyone and it is a great place to work and people are ever so friendly. I really enjoy my time in those units and I feel like I am home in a critical care environment. I really miss having a full time position in a critical care area.
The MICU is still with nice people, but not near as fun. They seemed more stressed and their patients are really not that interesting. This group also seems to "freak out" much more easily than their counterparts in the cardiac areas.
The stepdowns are so different from one another. There are three stepdowns and it goes from okay to wretched real quick. One area has been refurbished and people are nice, but dull. The second one is not refurbished and people are a little more rough around the edges but okay. The evil vile stepdown if where all the wicked nurses get dumped. It is like a unit of female truck drivers but with much worse language skills. I hate that unit and for the most part so does everyone else in the facility.
There are two med/surg areas I am sent to. One is a surgical floor where all the fresh post ops are placed (who are not monitored). People are nice, but the unit is a mess. Nothing works and never any supplies. There are these old computers in each room, but they have not worked for years and they do not bother to get rid of them. They require computer charting but most of the computers at the nurses station are broken as well. The few that do work usually have have one of the obese social workers camped out wasting space and getting cheetos crumbs all over the keys.
The regular med/surg area is not that bad. It is a nicely refurbished area and the majority of the patients are very low acuity and besides requests for food and pain meds it is a lo key area. The nurses are not very gifted in their overall knowledge base, but very nice. I imagine this is an area where nurses who just squeeked by in nursing school carve out a career.
The last area I end up is the rehab area. It is basically like a nursing home and I hate working that area. It reeks of piss and the patients are almost always total care and all incapable of controlling their bowels or bladders. There are techs on the floor but they play hide and seek all shift long. The staff vary from nice to semi-drunk, and one I am sure has some serious psychiatric issues.
If anything good came from this idea of working as a float nurse it is that I cannot wait to return to a full time critical care position. A nice fast paced surgical intensive care unit please with lots of belly surgeries and some open heart procedures please. I want swans and alines with loads of drips and strict visitation hours. Soon very soon!
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