Posted on by jparadisirn

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up (Niki’s easy shift )

Chapter 57

One of my two post-open heart patients has discharge orders. The better part of an hour is spent reviewing the discharge instructions with her parents, and observing them practice drawing up the right amount of each of the liquid home medications using syringes and a cup of water. This demonstrates they understand the difference between dose and volume, because too much digoxin or potassium can stop a child’s heart; not enough won’t do the job. I never get over the fact that we send parents home with newly taught skills that took weeks for me to master in nursing school. Most of them do just fine, but still…

Later, I’m helping Travis gather his things, because he’s discharging home too. When it’s time to remove his IV, I begin by carefully taking down the tape holding it secure.

“Just rip it off, Niki, okay? I want to get out of here sometime today.” He’s laughing at me, and I’m reminded again of how resilient kids are. It makes working with them so rewarding.

“Okay Boss, you got it.” I ripped off the first piece.

“Ouch! Shit! Leave some skin on my arm, would ya?”

“Okay, I’m going to get some adhesive remover. I’ll be right back.”

As I turn to leave the room, I see the animal therapy volunteer standing in the doorway. A medium sized brown rabbit is cradled in his arms.

The kid in the other bed has his little dog in his lap, and I know what will happen an instant before it does: Rocket catapults from the boy’s arms in a perfect arc, his forelegs stretched in front of him, his hind legs straight out behind. He touches down momentarily at the feet of the animal handler, bounces once, and then vertically leaps upwards nipping the rabbit’s backside. The rabbit launches from the arms of his handler, and they’re off. The animal therapist chases after, and Rocket’s boy starts screaming for him from his bed. Travis laughs, and Reege continues to lie placidly on the floor by his bed.

I run to the hallway, where Rocket is chasing the rabbit around and around the nurses’ station, until the rabbit leaps onto the desk before making a break down the hallway with Rocket in pursuit. In the other patient rooms, parents alarmed by the commotion, carry their children to the doorways to find out what’s happening. Several nurses chase the animals down the hallway, trying to catch them.

You can’t make this stuff up. There goes my quiet shift.

 

Posted on by jparadisirn

How to Sabotage a Shift (Niki Meets a Service Dog)

Chapter 56

Never, ever think your shift is easy and you may go home early. It’s the quickest way to sabotage it.

The shift started well enough. I did vitals and passed meds for the two post-open heart patients first. They each have private rooms, and I chatted a bit with their respective parents. Transferring their children from the PICU to the general floor makes some parents uneasy, even though they understand it means their child is getting well. In the PICU, they become used to their child receiving one-on-one nursing care. They become accustomed to the vigilance of a nurse dedicated to the care of only their child. On the pediatric unit, the nurses are assigned three or four patients plus their child. The parents are now required to practice vigilance for their previously critically ill child’s care. Understandably, some are more comfortable than others. My patients’ parents recognize me from the PICU. A familiar face eases their minds. Our rapport encourages my belief it will be an easy shift.

My third patient shares his room with another.

During report the night shift nurse said, “Niki, your patient, Travis, is a delight, you’ll love him. Unfortunately, his roommate is a bit of a handful, so we assigned him to another nurse. He saw Travis’ seeing eye dog, Reege, and insisted his parents bring his dog to stay with him. They brought him in last night, claiming it’s a service dog too. Fortunately, Travis’ dog is a professional, and ignores the little dog’s aggressive behavior towards him.”

“Well, if Travis and Reege can ignore the other dog, I guess I can too.”

 

“Hi Travis, my name’s Niki. Is this beautiful dog is your partner, Reege?”

“Hi Niki, I need to go to the bathroom. Can you put the IV pole where I can reach it please?”

“Sure. Do you need help?”

“Nope.”

I watch Travis handle the IV pole, and grip Reege’s harness with his other hand. Reege, a golden retriever, pads along silently, leading Travis the to the bathroom. Travis seems steady enough, but his fall risk makes me nervous, so I wait for them in the room.

On the return trip I try again, “Is it okay if I take the IV pole for you?”

“Sure.”

After Travis is back in bed and Reege settled at his bedside, I take his vitals.

“Travis, are you hungry or is your stomach still bothering you? The breakfast trays should arrive soon.”

“I’m hungry. Do you guys have bacon?”

“Of course, but if there’s no bacon on your tray, I’ll call down to the kitchen and get you some.”

“Thanks!”

As if on cue, the meal cart arrives, and I find Travis’ tray. Lucky me! There’s bacon.

I place the tray on his table, adjusting the bed and utensils so they’re within reach. Travis tells me he’s right-handed.

“You’ve done this before, I see.”

“Yeah, a few times,” he grins. Would you tell me what’s on the plate, and its place on the face of a clock?”

“Sure. Anything else? Do you want me to butter the toast or cut anything for you?”

“Nope, I got it. Thanks.”

“Hey Nurse. Hey!” It’s the kid in the other bed. He’s got his dog, a nondescript terrier mix, in his lap.

“Hi. Do you need something?’

“Yeah, can you get some bacon for Rocket?”

“Sure. I’ll make a call to the kitchen.”

When I near his bed, Rocket growls at me.

“Do you want to pet him?”

“Does he bite? I thought strangers shouldn’t pet service dogs.”

“People just say that because they think their dog is more special than Rocket.” The kid glares at Travis, who flips him off. I try not to laugh.

“He only bites if he doesn’t like you. If you give him some bacon, I’m pretty sure he won’t bite.”

“Um, okay. I’ll order the bacon and let your nurse know.”

I leave their call lights within reach, bed rails up, and take breakfast trays to my other two patients. After they’re done, I help their mothers with bathing and dressing them.

One of the perks of day shift is the café is open. There’s time to go downstairs and bring a latte back to the unit. I get in line. There are two police officers ahead of me.

One of them is Officer Mike.

“Hey, Nurse Niki. What are you doing, getting a latte before heading home? I thought night shift prefers beer for breakfast.”

How the hell does he know that?

“Well Officer Mike, how nice to run into you again. No more nights for this nurse. I’ve transferred to day shift.”

“Congratulations. Welcome to the land of the living Niki. See you around.”

Mike and his partner take their coffees from the counter.

Did he just look my way again before walking away?

Posted on by jparadisirn

It’s Not All Cute Print Scrubs and Bunny Blankets (Niki Floats to Pediatrics)

Chapter 55

 

I leave PICU, and report to the pediatric unit.

No offense to my pediatric nurse colleagues, but no PICU nurse enjoys floating to pediatrics. Not because you aren’t incredibly good nurses, you are. It’s because you work way too hard in a way different from PICU nursing.

In the PICU, I’m assigned one or two critically ill patients. I run my butt off evaluating vital signs and pulses up to every fifteen minutes, unless the patient is on the verge of coding and then it’s at least every 5. I titrate powerful drip medications, and monitor serum blood levels drawn from a complex highway of lines criss-crossing a patient’s body as he or she rests in a drug induced coma. It’s intense, challenging work, but I’m able to focus on just one or two very sick patients, developing a dynamic rhythm of patient care.

As a patient improves, they’re allowed to come up from sedation. Keeping a three year-old intubated until an intensivist decides they can protect their airway and orders removal of the breathing tube is hell on earth for a PICU nurse, but once it’s done the patient usually transfers quickly to the general pediatric floor, right about the same time they are no longer willing to stay in their crib.

Of course, caring for children too sick to go home, but too well to stay in their crib is the job of the pediatric nurse. In the PICU, most medications are administered IV, but on the floor it’s often changed to oral. I don’t care how much the pharmaceutical company labels medications as “fruit flavored,” no kid willingly takes medication that comes from pharmacy in a syringe, even if you convince him there’s no needles involved. For infants, you can squirt a few drops of the med at a time into just enough formula to fill a nipple, and they’ll suck it right down especially if you allowed them to get hungry enough. A toddler, however, is on to you right away, and spits out the spoonful of pudding or juice laced with medication. The last alternative no one enjoys is holding the child down on his back, sliding the needless syringe into the side of his mouth, towards the back, which makes him swallow as you squirt it in.

Of course, none of these skills or the extra workload carried by pediatric nurses prevents a patient from suddenly decompensating, and a code being called. All of this, with the family watching from the bedside. It’s not all cute print scrubs and bunny blankets for pediatric nurses. Theirs is a very special brand of vigilance and expertise.

I took report from a day shift nurse I don’t know. She gave me three patients. Two are post-open heart surgery, transferred from PICU, on the mend and getting ready to discharge. The third is a 14 year-old boy who is blind as a result of treatment for childhood Rhabdomyosarcoma. He had a bout with influenza and was admitted for dehydration. He’s going home today too. His parents spent the night at home. In their place, his Seeing Eye dog, Reege, a golden retriever, lies calmly alert on the floor by his bed.

I realize they gave me a pretty simple assignment. In fact, it’s possible all three of my patients will be discharged. I might get to go home early!

 

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Critical Values (Niki ponders on the job training for nurses)

Chapter 38

The chart notes written by the pediatric nurse caring for the little boy who died are scant. However, by searching the lab values, medication administration record, and the vital signs flow sheet in his medical record, I piece together a story of wrong assumptions combined with missed critical assessments.

The ER got the ball rolling well enough by drawing diagnostic blood work and admitting the boy to the pediatric unit, based on a phone consultation with our client, the pediatrician Dr. Straid. This small community hospital typically reserves a handful of beds designated “pediatric” for stable admissions, otherwise transferring unstable or critically ill children to larger, nearby children’s hospitals like the one I work for. Of course, someone would have had to recognize how sick this child was to trigger that response.

As I suspected, the results of the blood cultures drawn in the ER confirmed the severe bacterial infection, which ultimately killed the boy. These results were not available when he coded though, because it takes hours, sometimes days to grow out the killer organism. However, the complete blood count (CBC) results were available, including the differential, the cell-by-cell roadmap of the patient’s immune response. It’s white blood cell count (WBC) indicated a battle against infection, but it was the elevated number of new, immature white cells (bands) telling the story of the boy’s exhausted immune system. I searched the medical record to find documentation that this critical value was brought to Dr. Straid’s attention sometime before the child coded, but it wasn’t there. This is where the ball was dropped the first time: the nurse did not call in this critical result to the pediatrician if she had been aware of it. No one had, according to the patient’s chart. It’s the ancient law of the medical record: “If it isn’t written down, it didn’t happen.” I noted this on the yellow legal pad Grant had provided, to share with him later.

The nurse had entered a brief admission note, documenting the patency of the IV started in ER, administering the IV antibiotic, and that the bedrails were up. Her next entry described being called to the patient’s bedside by the parents, who were concerned about a pinpoint rash forming on their son’s trunk during the antibiotic infusion. The nurse called Dr. Straid at home, receiving an order for IV diphenhydramine and a steroid to treat what everyone assumed was an allergic reaction to the antibiotic. No mention of the CBC results during the phone call is recorded.

Of course, Dr. Straid could have taken it upon himself to come in from home to see his patient, I think to myself.

There are no further notes until the end of the nurse’s shift, when she recounts calling the code, and the failed resuscitation. I cringe for her while reading it. Poor woman. Was a lack of experience the reason for her failure to report the lab results, and the absent suspicion of an unidentified rash? I wonder how much pediatric training does this hospital provide its nurses? Cases like this one often become the catalyst for additional staff education, after the fact. Other times, nurses learn things the hard way, when a more experienced nurse catches their error during change of shift report, or from watching another nurse make a similar mistake.

I think about how Liz took it upon herself to mentor me when I was new to PICU, becoming a human safety net providing a layer of protection for my patients and me as I learned. I doubt this nurse had a Liz, at least not on this particular shift.

Poor patient. Poor nurse.