February 19, 2005
-
Another day from hell!! It wouldn’t have been so bad except that the nurses that were there to take care of the patients didn’t know what the hell was going on!! The man I was with today was an old man who had just had a colostomy bag put on yesterday. For those who want to know what a colostomy is it is an artificial opening on the abdominal wall through which waste material passes out of the body from the bowel. And the bag is the what the waste is collected into. And this bag is attached to the abdomen like a plastic tupperware lid. And this man’s bag kept opening on him whenever he tried to sit up! So needless to say, he was crapping on himself all day long and the nurses and nurses aids took FOREVER to help clean him up!!! And it was very difficult to keep him from sticking his fingers in the mess and poking around the opening for the colostomy! He was poking his fingers right into his intestines!!!! And to make matters worse, he was very confused and he kept on trying to get out of bed so that he could see what was going on because he didn’t know where he was!!! They HAD restraines on him to keep him in bed, but they took them off. And then his IV alarm kept on going off because his IV drip ran out and it took the nurses 2 hours to replace that!! Usually there are 2 nurses and 2 nurses aids on each wing, but today they had that PLUS 5 student nurses and their instructor and they STILL couldn’t take care of this patient!!! Things usually run a hell of a lot smoother than this with LESS staff!!! And to top things off, when it was my time to leave at 3pm, NOBODY REPLACED ME!!!! I left a half hour late and the nurse (who basically sat on her ass all day long!!) finally told me that I could leave when SHE FINALLY came in to help clean him up!! She had been there since 7am this morning, but this was the FIRST time, at 3:15pm, she had been in the room to take care of her patient!!! I am considering reporting her.
UGH!! I need a drink but first I need to jump in the shower and wash that smell off me. I never touched it but it just seeps into your nasal cavity and your clothes!!!!
