A day in the life of a registered nurse in 2017 is full of technological advancement, very sick patients, being short staffed, and constantly undergoing change. Take a look at a peek into a day in the life of a registered nurse in 2017.
Wake up
after 5 hours of sleep because you had to stay late, again, last night
Scroll through social to see what kind of shenanigans night shift got into
And only kind of understanding it
You’re short 3 nurses, 2 nursing assistants, and a partridge and a pear tree
But you’re used to it now
Document the same exact information in three different locations in the electronic health record…
… only to get audited and told you forgot to chart it in a fourth location
Just to help out physicians remember to do something
The time-sensitive medication won’t scan and is now late
Even though you messaged for a new one hours ago because you knew it wouldn’t scan
Trying to avoid being asked to be in charge of yet another committee
Rolly chairs are the best.
Attempting to talk to your coworkers during lunch
Arterial line leveled, foley draining, external ventricular drain patent, central line flushed, wound vac working, ventilator suctioned, and bed clean
And the patient is on the perfect balance of sedation and pain medication
Trying to borrow the bladder scanner
But they won’t let you take it
Checking your inbox while you’re on hold with pharmacy
- 4 new educational classes you have to go to on your day off for computer updates, protocol updates, and a policy change
- Your ACLS class has been rescheduled to a day you work
- 17 people are retiring
- Bracelets are on sale in the gift shop
- You forgot to sign up for another class and now the only one left is your 1 day off between six 12’s
Collectively writing incident report after a family member threatened each staff member individually
“Don’t forget to include how he said he would stab me in the eye socket… You misspelled defecate.”
When you and the doc successfully troubleshoot an issue with an arterial line
Trying to clock out with the “no lunch” code and overtime, as charge nurse, with 1 hour of education
Oh, and you floated to another unit for half the day so make sure you’re in the correct cost center
Angrily eating dinner at 9:00 pm
Because you ate lunch at 11:45 am
And finally, going from a semi-comatose to completely comatose state when going to bed
Goodnight.
Some fun nursing resources
I have compiled a list of posts below, from this blog and others, of resources for new nurses!
These are all so true! The bladder scanner was a nightmare! I’m glad to see it seems to be a universal experience anyway, good or bad!