Intensive care has a pace and an order which is rather unique.Even when a unit is busy, the work always seems structured, calm and for the want of a better word discliplined.
That is the nature of the beast.
The unit is roughly organised into a horse shoe shape. The critically ill patients situated on the outside of the shoe, the most senior nurse occupying the "heel" position, a vantage where he or she can survey the "workers" with eyes and an all overseeing monitor.
Each bed is allocated a trained member of staff, who takes charge of that bed for a 13 hour shift.
The bed spaces,monitors, pumps, ventilators,haemofiltration machines and the like are that nurse's domain, and pride,ego and peer pressure dictate tidiness, order and calmness in your own fifteen foot space.
Help is always only feet away. . More often than not the patient is sedated and compliant (though not always)
and terrified at doing anything wrong, family and friends generally are in awe of the proceedings and remain manageable and well supported.
There are huge stressors in this claustrophobic environment...but like a duck, swimming on a lake......everything on the surface is calm.
Last night I was asked to help out on an acute elderly admission ward.
30 patients. Two staff members. The walking senile...the incontinent, the confused, the slow, the distressed, the demanding and the needy.
Welcome to the real world.
As one bottom was cleaned and checked and the sheets and blankets arranged to help with a good night's sleep, another bottom needed sorting. The man with Alzheimer's had to be retrieved from sorting the linen room out, and the lady in bed four was late for her iv antibiotics.
Three buzzers rang out , unanswered as we turned and cleaned a stroke patient in his side room, and as I tried to locate the sluice and fresh bedding, another buzzer sounded, with a shrill beeeb beeb...bloody beeb
The two full time staff, a slightly harassed but cheerful scouser and an unflappable Filipino, were uncomplaining and hard working.....they were also resigned to the fact this night was generally "the norm" in our modern, stretched and flagship nhs, however, by working together all of the jobs eventually got done, and by midnight some order was restored.
One shift a week on Intensive care!
Bloody hell..how lucky am I?
Getting old and sick is a bitch. Thank God for the caring people who are there to administer comfort and help.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting insight into your work John. I worked with elderly ladies with early dementia, but they were well. I can only imagine the extra demands of a poorly, confused and sometimes angry, old person.
ReplyDeleteMy Dad has Alzheimers, he is always treated with respect and love. Thank God for all nurses, families sleep at night because of you.
ReplyDeleteJane x
What's a scouser?
ReplyDeleteThrough the course of illnesses and passing of both my parents, I have met many wonderful caring people...and many who were not.
ReplyDeleteThank you for being one who cares.
I know what you mean John as I spent a week in intensive care last November - and I must say I remember little or nothing about it - it has all disappeared into thin air. I find that loss of a whole week of my life quite disturbing but a friend was put into an artificially induced 'coma' for almost seven weeks so he laughs at my short time. I do agree though about that total lack of any sort of rushing about - that is what makes it so comforting I think. It' called professionalism.
ReplyDeleteYou are all angels of mercy and, in my opinion, nursing is one of the most honorable professions. Of course, some are better (kinder) than others. With the health field continually growing and economies tanking, I am afraid people will be going in the profession just for a job and will not be the dedicated troopers of years past.
ReplyDeleteGale
That was a very interesting look at your work John, thanks for sharing.Thank goodness for folks that have caring people to take care of them, such as you.
ReplyDeletescott
ReplyDeleteits slang for someone who comes from the city of Liverpool.
Liverpool is a historic maritime city just over the border of wales
You all do such a fabulous job John (I too was a trained nurse many moons ago) I don't know where we would all be without the dedicated and caring people that staff our NHS.
ReplyDeleteHave a lovely weekend.
Jo xx
Physically I would say yes, the med surg floor nurses have a tougher go on the back. More patients=more lifting. But you left out the part of ICU nurses having to have a brain full of knowledge about . .everything. It's never one body system that fails and whichever failed first or whichever failed most tends to change how things are done - ICU nurses 'get that'. How it's done with each patient is different and different shift to shift. The competitive nature of the ICU structure is partly because YOU need to know exactly where exactly what is. You DO rely on each other. And your brains are paddling like that duck the entire shift. 'The Weakest Link'
ReplyDeletedoesn't refer to a game show.
You're a good guy for recognizing the hard work on other floors. Been there. Done that. I'll stick to the ER.
I absolutely HATE ER
ReplyDeletehelped out a few times....
all or nothing....
They are indeed heroes who work in such circumstances day in and day out.
ReplyDeleteYou're a lucky boy.
Bless you. You and every other hard-working nurse in the world.
ReplyDeleteA big thankyou for doing the job you do. Not everyone is cut out for this type of work.
ReplyDeleteI know all too well what stress there is in nursing from what my son tells me.
Briony
Thank God there are caring people.
ReplyDeleteYou and those like you who do your job are the real gems in the world.
Hope you have a blessed weekend. ♥
I've said it before, it takes a special person to work with the elderly at any stage of their lives. The other day I was helping a patient in a wheelchair, and when her foot ACCIDENTALLY bumped the door frame, she yelled out, 'WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING YOU IDIOT!!!' in her loudest voice....sigh.....
ReplyDeleteWhat's that about the "bloody Beeb"? I think the BBC are a super organisation and have consistently served a wonderful TV and radio diet to the British public.
ReplyDeletebeep?
ReplyDeleteMy hat is off to you, John. You're a star.
Hi John
ReplyDeleteHow I remember those back round days... Went onto labour ward yesterday as part of my back to floor Friday that we have to do. It was just like a bus had pulled up outside and everybody had descended , babies everywhere lol.
Jane
LOL And I can't stand labor/delivery. You've never seen the old, fat girl move as fast as when the patient says 'I think I might be in labor' Zooooooom! Up to the floor!!!
ReplyDeleteRhonda has only just left for work at 5.30am - a 65klm drive - and hers is a gazetted mental health ward for the elderly - usually someone with a underlying medical disorder causing behavioural problems, or, an as yet undiagnosed dementia of one form or another.
ReplyDeleteThey only have 15 beds, however, her task and that of her colleagues is to stabilise those patient's conditions - ASAP - so that their patients can be returned to some form of either home care or nursing home care where they were previously becoming unmanageable.
I used to stop in and have coffee with Rhonda during her break (if I was in the area) but it became too uncomfortable when I recognised some old friends who could not recall me at all!
There is always fierce competition for any spare beds in their unit with the administration always trying to pressure them to go "over their numbers" 'cos there's ome older person in one of their public hospital beds whom the staff cannot manage!
Thankless! God bless them all!
So glad I read the comments before repeating Scott's question and so happy to now know what a scouser is.
ReplyDeleteI visited ICU several times in my time in the NHS and you're right -- they have a serene, almost Zen-like aura.
ReplyDeleteMedical Assessment Units were Dante's Inferno in comparison. Actually, Dante's Inferno was ICU compared to MAU.
Your a good man John, and it is an honour to know you.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
John
The first comment by SO says it all. THANK GOODNESS FOR PEOPLE LIKE YOU!
ReplyDeleteI have always been horrified about the stress, physical and mental, caused to patients (especially heart patients) as they're moved from Intensive Care on to the Ward.
ReplyDeleteAlas, it takes a strong constitution, a voiciferous family back-up (with enough time to bring in nutritious and TEMPTING food) and the caring-culture of Fillipino nurses to be able to survive some general hospital wards these days.
ted and Bunny
ReplyDeletea little cynical but perhaps true observation in part!
the transition from 1 to 1 nursing to being 1 of 30 has always been a difficult one...
I always saw this phenomenon when on spinal injuries when the patients arrived desperate for their OWN nurse to care for them 24/7
to help we used to carry "baby alarms" in our pockets, so the most vulnerable could contact us when we were not always in the same room!
Hello John!
ReplyDeleteWhat a night you had! I worked as a NA for a few years when I was in my late teens early 20's and was on the 'intensive care' side of the nursing home. It certainly wasn't like a hospital but it had it's moments. Thank heavens for good staff at your hospital...I'm sure it makes your life a lot easier when everyone get's along well. At least you've got a week before you're back on that shift...enjoy!
Maura :)
I can only admire you for doing such an important job so conscientiously. I shudder to think what a dreadful mess I would make of it. Luckily I've never had to stay in a hospital as yet but no doubt that time will come.
ReplyDeleteDon't know how you guys and girls do it. Just glad and thankful that you do. Good job it's not for the money, else we'd all be in biiig biiig twubble.
ReplyDelete