Why Mom Hates Clinical Days

A phone conversation between me and Mom and few days ago:

Mom: Hello?
Me: I'm depressed.
Mom: Why? What happened?!
Me: I never want to work for real on a floor like this. It's like hospice.
Mom: Oh, it's a clinical day. I should know not to answer the phone on these days. I'm not going to anymore.

*Thanks for the unconditional support, Mom!

Today we get on the floor and another nursing student went to see if their patient was still in their room since they were supposed to be leaving shortly for dialysis. The student peeked their head in and saw the patient in the bed and a family member at the bedside. While listening to report from the night nurse when she reached that particular patient: "She dead". My teacher immediately whipped her head around to that student who replied "But she's in there!" The nurse then informed them that the family member was sitting with the body. It would have been a real shock for them if they'd hadn't heard report and had just gone it to get vital signs!

Since I was one of the few students who hadn't done post-mortem care, my teacher snagged me in to help. Definitely not my favorite experience from nursing school. Last night I had a dream that someone was tying the tag onto my toe (yes, that was one of my jobs). Definitely not a peaceful dream!

My primary patient was very sick. She got worse all day and wouldn't respond to anything that I did. I "milked" her finger when trying to check her blood sugar - a task that brings most patients to tears. She flinched, or even opened her eyes. I also gave a shot of a medication that looked like Mellow Yellow and is a pretty unpleasant shot to receive, but once again, no reaction. There was a family member in the room all day and kept blaming her unresponsiveness on the morphine she'd received very early that morning. By the afternoon, I realized that the morphine wasn't the issue. When her blood pressure, respirations, and blood sugar began dropping I notified her staff nurse who told me that she was aware of the situation and that she probably wouldn't make it through the night. The family member had been informed of this, but was in denial of the situation and insisted that the doctor's insert a feeding tube because the problem was that she wasn't getting any food since she couldn't swallow - she refused to believe that it had anything to do with the major hemorrhagic stroke she'd suffered. The family member was the patient's designated power of attorney, so what she said had to go, and if she's still alive today and her labs are stable, they will have no choice other than to insert the tube. She's also a "full code", so if she does die, the medical team has no choice but to resuscitate her - probably only for her to die again shortly. Just another reason I want a living will! I've become quite the little advocate for them here recently!

My other patient's only request for the day was a hot cup of coffee. Every time I'd go get it for her and she'd pour in the sugar, begin to stir... then transport would come to take her to some procedure or another - forcing her to leave her untouched coffee. By the time she'd return that cup was cold so she'd ask for another. This happened three separate time! It was 3 in the afternoon before she finally got to enjoy her morning coffee!

The job isn't looking so good considering I still haven't heard anything. I'm going to call if I still haven't heard by Monday. That's fine with me. If I don't have a job I can enjoy the beginning of my summer, then apply after I've taken my test and am officially a Registered Nurse!