The doctor will see you now…
Welcome back!
Welcome! Sorry I’m a bit late, but here we go.
Happy Nurse’s week! Now, I had a really good week at work last week, so I’m in my ‘I really love my job and being a nurse’ stage of life right now. I appreciate that a lot of you may not feel like that. We all know it’s a super tough job with a rollercoaster of emotions, so trust me when I say I get it if you aren’t feeling your job right now.
This week something interesting happened, the ward was steady not busy but Pleural Clinic was utter chaos. I started the clinic back in October so I haven’t actually been doing it that long, what I have noticed is that for some reason since the beginning of the year the Pleural service has definitely increased by double maybe triple, the Doctors keep saying we don’t know where these Pleural patients are coming from. As I’ve explained before, usually the clinic is made for outpatients, however we do often see inpatients who need a drain as well. Instead of having to find these patients a side room to be able to put the drain in on the ward we now have a dedicated clinic where we can do it in a safer and easier environment. Recently we’ve had a lot of registrar led clinics. The reason this is important, they also hold the referral phone which often means for us in the clinic, is that it tends to add two or three patients each time they’re in as we can see the referral straight away. This week that has meant going to A&E to see the patients before they are admitted. Now, I’ll be honest its somewhere I’ve tried to avoid. Its funny really, when I first started my nursing I assumed I’d be a trauma nurse. However, during my studies I never got an A&E placement and the more you don’t see it I think the scarier it becomes. Now the idea of A&E is alien to me and always somewhere I’m frightened to be moved to, as a Pleural nurse definitely feels different. On Wednesday we were in resus for two hours to see two separate patients, a pneumothorax and a pleural effusion. On Friday we actually managed to see three patients in ED and by treating them there we managed to avoid them being admitted to hospital. Although I don’t work in A&E it’s quite easy to appreciate the chaos that’s around everybody. Being able to help in a small way by being able to send those three people home felt really good. I think my point is that my favourite part of being a nurse is the unpredictability and I don’t think I expected the Pleural Clinic to be more unpredictable than working on the ward. I guess it’s fun to have your career go in ways you never expected. I’m typically someone who likes to be in control so I think letting go slightly and just going with the flow of where my job opportunities take me has been a big life lesson. I'm excited to see what happens next.
As this post is a tiny bit late that’ll be two this week today, as it’s bank bank holiday and again on Sunday we will resume normal posting. I think it’s time to talk about students.
See you later this week and remember to breathe...
28 Apr 2024 11:58
Welcome back!
14 Apr 2024 11:00
One of the weirdest parts of the job is the constant reminder of mortality. This week I looked after a patient who is young and has cancer, another who’s heart is failing and another who struggled with drug abuse. Now, I will say, as always I have no idea if this is just me or if it's other people too. The more I look after people who are far too young to be dying it just makes you think. It makes you think about the life you hope to lead, the life you might never get to live and all of it in between. It’s difficult sometimes to remember that this isn’t something everyone thinks about, talking about dying is a strange topic. When my grandad died it shook my entire family, he was the first to die. We looked after him in his last moments of life, which for me, is something I feel honoured that I got to do for the rest of my life. I guess with work it is so different, we see a tiny snapshot of this person's life and only see the initial shock of grief. What I learned when my grandad died was that grief is something that you then live with forever. I feel a constant pull between screw it let's live our life, spend all our money, who knows how long we get and then planning for the future like nothing could ever happen to me. Another part to nursing someone at the end of their life is the family dynamics. Like I said, it’s a snapshot of someone’s life. We treat everyone exactly the same, regardless of what they may have done in their life or not done, we are there. I think the difficulty of this is that the family may not respond how we think. When we looked after my grandad, I would like to think that the joy of his life and the love of his family could be felt the minute you walked in. I guess the reality is not everyone’s family is like that. Often we are the people holding their hands as they take their last breath, the shoulder to cry on when the family is inconsolable and worst of all having to call someone to tell them their loved one has died. It’s a big part of our jobs and a big part of life. The people who make this easier are the team’s we work with and the people we go home to. I must say I am incredibly lucky, the team I have around me is amazing. The laughter we share and I think just the deep understanding that sometimes we don't need to say it, we all get it. Sharing a coffee together at the nurse’s station and debriefing or changing the subject entirely is truly what makes the day easier. I think we can all agree when I say that it’s rubbish when anyone dies. Being a nurse we see it more than most, if we can help people be comfortable and at peace then we have done the very best we can. At the end of the day that is all we can do.
7 Apr 2024 11:00
Welcome back!
31 Mar 2024 20:16
Welcome. I’m Lauren, a 28 year old wife, dog lover and nurse. For the first post on my brand new blog I thought it would make the most sense to actually explain who I am and why I have something I wanted to say. Firstly, I have been a nurse for nearly 3 years and for most of it I have worked within respiratory including more recently pleural clinic. Secondly, I love my job. Lastly, I sometimes find that job challenging in ways I never realised possible and more rewarding than I can probably express. I wanted to start this blog as a space where the angry moments can be vented, the sad moments get their moment of silence and the joy gets the laughter and celebration it deserves.
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