I like my ring!

Too often I'm struck by the fact that women, (especially Doctors), have huge diamonds on their rings. I keep thinking - Did he buy your love too?

note on ibuprofen

So I was told by a fellow nurse the other day: "you should give food when administering ibuprofen" who knew! I'm now educated, ibuprofen potential gastric bleeding. check.

I did apply to the fifth floor RN position, a pediatric unit. Tomorrow will be my first dayshift at the new computer documentation - Caredoc I hope all goes smoothly John reminds me just pray.
I just recently re-learned that Jesus prays on our behalf. Romans 8:27 "and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." I am so thankful for His intercession, Jesus knows what's best for his saints.

Life on the 8th Floor of Duke Hospital

Duke huddle previous week: CareDoc Go Live Week! (Interpretation: all nursing staff will have new computer documentation.) I guess it's not so bad but I've only done on shift so far. There's tricky icons, and ways in which you could do excessive charting.
God has been gracious to help me find some friends among the staff. People of opened up to me when I least expect it. I also like John's model of remembering what's going on in their lives to allow them to know I care about them more than superficial stuff at work.
I took care of a patient the other night and their heart rate increased to the 160's! Most people regular rate is 60-80's/per minute. However the patient become stable enough to stay on our floor but God is gracious to provide the care I can give her through Him. My mom has said that He uses our hands! I am also reminded that Christ is the ultimate Physician.
Then to top of the night we had a code, my heart starts racing whenever that alarm goes off! EVIDENCE OF GRACE: another patient had pretty poor color (by that I mean blue) I couldn't see much of this patient's breathing , and someone tried getting a pulse rate, so after our charge nurse started doing compressions I also helped out doing compressions - then the patient started breathing on their own again while the respiratory therapist was on the verge of intubation...wow cool the patient's color came back! Then because this patient was not able to get the intensive monitoring they need this patient went to the MICU which is right around the corner from our unit...lucky us huh.
If you can remember to pray that John and I are a light and illuminate sketchy places of unbelief in peoples hearts if God is willing at my work picnic on Sunday. :-)

the best and worst part of being a nurse

Yesterday I took care of a 43 y.o. female she had been deaf until three years ago she had a cochlear implant. Can you imagine!
I came home yesterday crying because she was admitted with a bowel obstruction. The medical doctor taking care of her is affectionately named "Dr. G" - he and his interns pulled up the CT scan of her abdomen and he stated look that could be mal-practice (this means the Doctor in the ER was not paying attention and didn't read the CT scan properly). Dr. G said she needs a surgeon to consult her very soon. My thoughts, "Yikes this is serious!" She had come into the Emergency department the night before with nausea and vomiting. So today my plan of care was to make sure she was comfortable and be her advocate. I kept letting the doc's know she was extremely nervous please explain her test results and the next procedures. The test she was having today was a endoscopy. Knowing there was a bowel obstruction/mass the medical professionals took a sample of the cells for testing. The result: Cancer.
My patient came back from her test and I honestly hadn't been given any information nor had she. So she asked, "Am I okay?"
I looked at her and said the doctors are trying to take samples for what kind of cells the are they will come and talk to you as soon as they know the results. And so Dr. G said please text page me when the family is visiting. So I did. Soon enough the doctors came at the end of my shift bearing the bad news of her cancer diagnosis. I waved good-bye to her as I left for the day amongst her family members and smiled as if I had no words to console them at this period in her life-she smiled back and said thank you.

Teamwork and Christ's body

It's reality when I go to work and pple who gossip, and demean others - it's a team effort isn't it? The housekeeping is busy and very helpful they usually go about their work without any words of affirmation, or being told to do something from my observation they get their job done. The other pple working with me don't speak much to them. Talk about the lowly pple on this earth. This saddens me. How come we think we are better than them? We would have to clean it up if they didn't so they are part of the team too. 1 Cor. 12:12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. (vs. 25) so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. (vs. 27) Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.