My crazy Tuesday

Tuesdays are usually my days to work 11am-7pm. This Tuesday they had 4 secretaries scheduled instead of the usual 3. I assumed it was a mistake and were going to end up sending someone home. Instead they sent me down to CVICU (a 2 bed ICU with a 1:1 nurse/patient ratio where they get all the thoracic surgery patients). The first thought going through my mind was "oh great, of all the days for me NOT to bring my bookbag!" When I get down there, Paula (the manager of CVICU/ICU and my former boss on TMS) asked what my grades were for my first semester of clinicals. After I told her, she said "Fantastic! You get to help the nurses out and get some hands on experience down here as well as do the secretary stuff." FINALLY I get some patient care time!

Everything went smoothly until around 1:30ish when the thoracic surgeon calls up and states that we have to move one of the patients up to CCPU and get the room STAT cleaned for another patient. We pulled off a miracle turnaround of 15 minutes on making that happen. And then the entire department (keep in mind this unit is the old ER and the patient rooms are the old trauma rooms) was taken over by equipment and staff from OR/Cath lab. To make a long story short, I got to observe putting a patient on ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) and floating a temporary pacemaker. It was such a rush! The doctors and nurses did a fantastic job of teaching once the patient was stabilized. Even during the procedures, they would explain what they were doing and why they were doing it. They even set up monitors at the nurses station so we could have a good view of what was going on.

Needless to say my 8 hour shift turned into a 13 hour shift with lunch/supper on the run. But it was well worth it! And I must have done something right because they asked me to come back to CVICU Friday morning for at least 7am - 11am to assist with the beginnings of a post-op open heart! I am hoping that they are light enough on TMS on Friday that I can stay down there :)