The ideal night…boring but appreciated.
Somewhere between nursing school and working as a nurse, I developed what a typical night would be like. A night where I would be able to administer medication, do my assessments, and teach whatever lesson that is needed to help the patient. The night would continue with the random administration of pain and antiemetics, all the patients sleeping, and rounding every two hours. Truth be told that night does not actually turn out as smooth as described.
A typical night does not turn out smooth. It starts with receiving the report. During the exchange of care, a few patients request items like ice or something to aid their symptoms, pain, nausea, or vomiting. This makes you run between a few rooms. Your admitted patient comes up right at the change of shift or soon after and searching for items such as flushes, emesis bags, and tubing becomes a priority. The night barely calms down then you find unstable vital signs which would lead to more medications such as blood pressure medication and Tylenol.
Every once in a great while, a night comes along where the patient’s sleep, the medications are minimal, and patients’ have stable vital signs all night. These nights come, the drug is administered on time, all documents and assessments are all put into the chart. The patients sleep. The night becomes quiet and long. These ideal nights as a chance to breathe deeply can always bring in a little bit of anxiety, wondering what with happen as the night continues.
The remainder of the night may become long. This allows you to read emails and review your schedule or plan for the next month. Depending on the staff that could make the time go by a little faster. These nights are few and far between, but when they come around are very much appreciated.