Double Shift

Last Saturday I was pulled out to ICU during the night shift. Boy am I so glad! I miss the ICU! True enough, I enjoyed the experience of being there again, though in a different hospital. It's like being at home. I handled a benign (easy to manage) case. My patient has a heplock (a device inserted into the vein of your hand into which nurses inject some medications) and an oxygen via nasal (through the nose) cannula ONLY and the usual hourly monitoring of vital signs, e.g., blood pressure, temperature, pulse rate, and breathing.

Come 5 a.m. the senior staff nurse asked if I wanted to render another 8 hours (that's 6am-2pm!) because some staff nurses won't be reporting for work. I thought it's ok so I said yes. I was groggy by 7am. I couldn't focus. I'm making medication cards for the nth time and I couldn't get it right. I tried to focus on medication administration just to make sure my license won't get provoked by medication errors.

As the day progresses, I am able to cope with lack of sleep. I didn't get a nap at all out of hiya with my superiors in spite of them asking me to try to get a quick nap.

Note to self: hindi ko na uulitin ang mag-16 hours when it's 10pm-6am going to 6am-2pm.