Complete and utter insanity
This weekend was one of the craziest weekends I've ever worked, in my entire career.
I was in charge, people coming and going, people in my face asking me hundreds of rapid fire questions, family members, yelling (LOTS of yelling), call outs, staffing issues, complaints, no lunch breaks, referral people being silly.
The pressure, yo. I was DEFINITELY feeling the pressure.
It was intense. But at the end of each day, I survived. I made it. There was a fair bit of chaos I had to muddle through to get through the end of each day, but I survived. It's really interesting how different weekends are, and I feel like today was MUCH better than yesterday. Yesterday, we had no plan of attack, had no idea what was going to happen, what was going to walk through the door. Today, we had game plans, everyone was on the same page, and things just went a whole lot smoother. And truthfully, every one just pitched in. I didn't have to worry about who was doing what or when; all hands were on deck every second of this weekend! I'm very grateful, because truthfully, it could have been a lot worse. I'm thankful things didn't get as out of hand as I thought they would, and I'm thankful today was a better day.
No amount of training and experience in the world prepares you for the extremely high amount of unpredictability that comes in my line of work. Not just in my line of work, but in the nursing world in general. Literally the entire milieu can flip on a dime, from good to bad and vice versa. You have to be ready for just about anything, even though in the moment you have that 5 second "OH CRAP WHAT DO I DO" moment. At least I do. I was processing the day with one of my co workers who is a new nurse, and she said this morning that she had "a nervous stomach." I told her that I've been doing this for 6 years now and I still get the nervous stomach every now and then. You just never know. You just have to do your best. Patients come first, always. And their safety is #1, even if they don't have the capabilities for whatever reason to make decisions to keep them safe. So yeah, sometimes that means us stepping in and having to make the decision for them, or at least help them make good decisions. And it's not easy. It's never easy. Even the most psychotic of psychotic doesn't want to relinquish control. It may not come across as someone who I can tell is slowly spiraling towards losing control (or sometimes it's VERY fast), but it does happen. But at the end of the day, everyone was safe. Patients and staff. It's a roller coaster, this line of work, but you have to just buckle up!
I was in charge, people coming and going, people in my face asking me hundreds of rapid fire questions, family members, yelling (LOTS of yelling), call outs, staffing issues, complaints, no lunch breaks, referral people being silly.
The pressure, yo. I was DEFINITELY feeling the pressure.
It was intense. But at the end of each day, I survived. I made it. There was a fair bit of chaos I had to muddle through to get through the end of each day, but I survived. It's really interesting how different weekends are, and I feel like today was MUCH better than yesterday. Yesterday, we had no plan of attack, had no idea what was going to happen, what was going to walk through the door. Today, we had game plans, everyone was on the same page, and things just went a whole lot smoother. And truthfully, every one just pitched in. I didn't have to worry about who was doing what or when; all hands were on deck every second of this weekend! I'm very grateful, because truthfully, it could have been a lot worse. I'm thankful things didn't get as out of hand as I thought they would, and I'm thankful today was a better day.
No amount of training and experience in the world prepares you for the extremely high amount of unpredictability that comes in my line of work. Not just in my line of work, but in the nursing world in general. Literally the entire milieu can flip on a dime, from good to bad and vice versa. You have to be ready for just about anything, even though in the moment you have that 5 second "OH CRAP WHAT DO I DO" moment. At least I do. I was processing the day with one of my co workers who is a new nurse, and she said this morning that she had "a nervous stomach." I told her that I've been doing this for 6 years now and I still get the nervous stomach every now and then. You just never know. You just have to do your best. Patients come first, always. And their safety is #1, even if they don't have the capabilities for whatever reason to make decisions to keep them safe. So yeah, sometimes that means us stepping in and having to make the decision for them, or at least help them make good decisions. And it's not easy. It's never easy. Even the most psychotic of psychotic doesn't want to relinquish control. It may not come across as someone who I can tell is slowly spiraling towards losing control (or sometimes it's VERY fast), but it does happen. But at the end of the day, everyone was safe. Patients and staff. It's a roller coaster, this line of work, but you have to just buckle up!
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