Truth versus Consequences

The winner takes it all

The time is 1845, shift report just started and you can taste the smell of doom in the air. Everyone’s trying to grab your attention so they can get out of the unit. The sooner the better. Hands on your kardex, eyes on the computer, trying to review the day’s labs, their results, what meds to give, who to call, and what other test they need. Patient two out of five, so far so good. But before you could even breathe a sigh of relief, here comes the heavy part. While trying to grapple with the situation, dietary gives a quick yell to the station, “Make sure to gather your food trays and put them on the tray table”. In the meantime, charge nurse just announced a nurse needs to be floated to another unit. One of their nurses called in. So now, you have to get another patient from her lot. Worse, you only have one nurse’s aide for the whole unit. The charge nurse also has her patients. Patient three needs to have blood ASAP. Family cannot be reach. Patient four is confused. Again, family cannot be reached. All needs to be bathed before the shift is over. Labs had to be drawn at 0400. Abnormal results to be called to the doctors. All these while doing bedside care. Six patients on a twelve-hour shift. Night shift just started and already, the heavy load is up to the ceiling.

Drowning.

We’ve all been drowning each time we come to work. It doesn’t matter how you swim, fast or slow, or barely floating.

It is still drowning.

We normalized it by thinking if we could survive one heavy shift, we could survive a heavier one. And yes, you told yourself “You can do it !”, over and over again, until you believe it. At the end of each shift, you walk out defeated.

That is the truth nobody wants to hear.

Now here comes the new nurses and the student nurses. You want to set a good example to them. That taking care of a human being is the noblest job in the world. Here, you teach them how to log in the computer, look at a patient’s file, their labs, their meds, their doctors. In the end, they ended up not looking at the patient from all the commotions. Missing the most important point. Where is the caring? And how we teach them is , if you did not chart it, it didn’t happen.

The consequences.

Somebody speaks out. This is too heavy. It is not safe. We’re short-staffed. Can you make it better? That big question directed to management. Written out in the employee surveys. Discussed on the town hall meetings. The higher ups listened.

Their answer is looking back at you with these words, “How can you make it better?”

Consequences.

Twenty-five years of nursing and I still don’t have the answer to that.

Caring has become my greatest burden.

I wish I had more time to take care of my patients.

I wish.