Well, it's as bad as the news said.
It's just crazy to see it in person.
(I will be including some nursing jargon, feel free to skip to the last part for muggle commentary)
To start. The majority of the day was spent in the computer lab. The hospital system runs on the Cerner program called Soarian. The catch is, they implemented that computer program in 2008, so it is very limited. The system does not have a critical care capabilities for flow sheets, so all of that is done on paper! I have never paper charted. The computer aspect was user friendly enough, but knowing what goes where, will take a moment. They also use Braun pumps, which SLRMC was supposed to switch to before COVID started. However, that start date got pushed back so I have not learned how to use them. They are not user friendly, at all. Thankfully, I get a few orientation days to piece it all together. It should not be too bad since they are doing minimal charting, and mostly focusing on patient cares.
MUGGLES START HERE
The last four hours I was sent to work on the floor. The nurse I was paired with started talking about what it has been like. They have been in the red zone (overwhelmed) for the last month. A lot of nurses have gotten sick, so they are very short staffed. In the ICU, nurses are taking up to 3 patients, where normally they have 2 (and that 3rd makes a difference, trust me). They have 280 beds in the hospital. They have converted all units to take COVID patients. All of them are full. In total they have around 70 ventilator capable machines. Some they have had to rent from the state. Right now, about 60 of them are being used. A lot of the patients are vented in the ER because there are no open beds. The crazy part is, they been running at max capacity for weeks. They are a little behind the New York City curve. They are all very tired, and the end is not within sight.
Throughout the day, there were codes called out overhead. In total, there were 5 rapid responses (people are not quite coding (not breathing/no heart beat) but are requiring extra assistance) and 2 code grays (their version of a stroke code). This is far more than normal.
At the end of the shift, a patient passed away. He started coding, and we tried. Really. His body just could not keep going on in that state. These patients are so so sick. You can hardly move them without their bodies freaking out. They're all on a lot of medications. A lot of high ventilator settings.
Last week, one of their own passed. An ER nurse who was only 44 and had 3 children of his own. That one hurt a little more to hear. His coworkers were the ones to take care of him too. Definitely took a moment of silence for him. Every life matters. Just as a nurse, it's hard to hear about other nurses dying from being in the same environment I am in. Makes it all too real.
Not to end on a sad note, but thats what the reality is. This place is having a hard time.
Until tomorrow,
Britt.