To Whom it May Pertain,
Recent erroneous and poorly thought-out comments by a senator concerning how nurses spend their “breaks” made me aware that a public service announcement was needed. An informative letter, so to speak, inviting you into my little world as an ICU nurse. Don’t worry about finding a seat. You won’t be here long enough. In the infamous words of Jack Nicholson, you can’t handle the truth.
So without further ado, allow me to tell you about a recent shift I worked.
I took a break. I did, I’ll admit it. You’re right, but there were no cards.
I got lunch about 3:45pm, and I was grateful for it. You see, I didn’t think I’d get lunch. I had resigned myself to that fact, and my plan was to throw some Saltines down my gullet while I took my one potty break. I mean, it probably wasn’t the most hygienic, but it beat passing out. I did get a lunch though! My charge nurse made me take it.
I had planned to eat earlier than 4:00pm. Not having had breakfast, I hadn’t eaten since the night before. I’ve heard of this new diet trend called Intermittent Fasting. It’s supposed to be great for weight loss. Basically you go 12-15 hours without eating. Heck, I don’t know why this is such a groundbreaking thing nowadays. Isn’t this simply #nurselife? My OBGYN asked me in December how I maintained my slim frame after three kids and being in my forties. I told him I didn’t know, but now I guess I should have just said it’s The Nurse Diet. As it was this particular shift, over 18 hours had gone by before I put any calories in my body. Go me. But I digress.
I was saying that I wanted to eat earlier. I did. I love food. Lunch is my jam, and I had tried to leave right at eleven. The plan was to run down real quick before I discharged a post-op patient. Because I knew once that bed was empty, another far more sickly patient would take its place. That’s just how the cookie crumbles.
Mmmm. Cookies. Not yet.
Nope, no cookies or even a coke at eleven. The doctor wanted to try and extubate my other patient. For the layman, like yourself, who apparently knows enough to know how I spend my break, but may not understand medical terms, extubate means remove the tube that has been breathing for the patient. And you know, it takes breathing to survive, so it’s kinda a big deal.
I had to wean down some pretty dangerous medications. I do that a lot. I hold in my little fingertip the ability to change the dosage of medications that keep your heart beating, ones that keep you from going into a diabetic coma, ones that keep the seizures away, and about a hundred more. I have to keep the dose limits and how much I can change things around in my head. Otherwise someone could die.
I found this funny meme on the internet. I showed it to my husband. He said skeptically, “I’ve never seen that many machines in a patient’s room. Look, there are seven of the same machine!”
I rolled my eyes and explained, “that’s an IV pump. We infuse multiple medications at once. I had that many machines in a room the last time I worked!”
See, my husband is married to a nurse, but even he didn’t realize how crazy things got. With that in mind, I didn’t go to lunch at eleven. Yep.
I was going to go after the sedating medicines were turned off and the patient woke up a bit more. That was the plan. Just run down real quick. My lunch buddy, the person who would assume care of my critical patients while I raced to grab a sandwich before the cafeteria closed, she had just gotten a new admission. Way sicker than mine. By a little bit. She said she could handle watching my people too.
But just as I was about to tell the charge nurse my plan, the doctor decided we needed to do a bedside procedure. I gathered the supplies, I gathered the required paperwork. I even gathered a collection of coworkers to help me turn the patient for the procedure since he outweighed me by over 150 pounds. I drew up the dangerous medications, ones that require special training and education to administer. Then I waited for the physician. He had gotten called to another patient.
I waited.
I thought I’d go to lunch after the procedure. That was the plan. I had taken care of all of my patient’s needs for the time being, and I wanted to grab some grub. I was starving!
Then CT called. That’s where they do radiographic scans. The doctor had ordered a STAT CT. Stat means right then. Pretty important. Life and death stuff. Something about a possible brain bleed. So yeah, no lunch for me.
You see, I had to go down to the test with my patient. Cause he was that sick. Someone had to control those life-sustaining meds. Someone had to watch the heart monitor. The someone was me. I had to coordinate with my Respiratory Therapist since the patient couldn’t breathe on his own yet. Yeah, we had to breathe for him, as we rolled down the hall, pushing rolling machines alongside him through narrow passageways and onto an elevator just big enough for an ICU bed.
Good thing I’m so skinny from starvation, I thought, as I stood pinned behind an IV pole up against the wall.
Funny story in the elevator, though. My Respiratory Therapist hadn’t eaten lunch either.
After the CT. After the transport. Then I’d take a break. That was the plan. But you know how plans are. They’re like pie crust promises. Easily made, easily broken.
My patient’s wife had arrived bedside in our absence. Poor dear. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart. She was so worried. He had been sick for so long, so unexpectedly, and we didn’t really have any answers. I thought of how I would feel if my husband was in that bed. My heart broke for her. I spent extra time explaining in detail everything I could. I offered her emotional support. I offered her hope based on my knowledge gained through the years. I hugged her and held her while she cried. I mean, who could go to lunch with that going on?!
I got to eat, though. Eventually. The hot line was closed, but I grabbed something. I had clocked out for lunch, and after giving directions to a lost family member in the hall, then letting a patient transport take the elevator before me, I had a good ten minutes to eat. I loved every bit of those ten minutes. I reveled in those ten minutes. I mean, I got ten minutes. Ten glorious minutes! I had started to think I would not.
You know what I didn’t do in my ten minutes of break throughout my thirteen hour day? I didn’t play cards! Ain’t nobody got time for that.
Sometimes nurses just long for a drink of water. We can’t have it at the nurse’s station, though, and we don’t really have the time to drain the urine that coveted drink of aqua would create. So, we don’t think about poker or gin rummy. We think about if it’s worth sucking down that styrofoam cup of water when we know we’ll be running the hall later holding our bladder beyond what’s healthy. We just wanna pee. Are there decks of cards in the bathroom?
And it’s not just me, an ICU/CCU nurse. It’s all of us. Nurses. We’re all stretched beyond what we can handle sometimes physically, mentally, and emotionally. We’re all stressed out, with sore backs, and missed family get-togethers. If we happen to have a cold day in hell, pigs are flying, and we can break out into a card game in the break room, then we darn well deserve it. I mean, I’ve never seen it, but if you do… I mean, miracles happen. If you do catch a card game, maybe you could grab us some snacks to go along with it. After all, we love food! It’s like the Holy Grail of Nursing. Many seek it, but few find it.
Next time, consider my very normal and common day before making some ridiculous future comment.
That is all,
A Hangry ICU Nurse
Dorothy says
Ohhh…Seriously???
I just Googled & read a couple of articles about it all & now my mouth is hanging open.
I hadn’t heard about this insane Washington state “amendment” til now.
SERIOUSLY???
So… get this…Right after that informative little piece of information, I also read about a nurse in Baton Rouge. She was attacked by a mentally ill patient while trying to get him off another nurse.
Despite a head injury, torn ACL & numerous contusions, she didn’t go off somewhere to rest. Or play cards. She actually finished her shift. (maybe not a good time to take a break?) Well, anyway, she did get checked out later in the ER & found she actually needed a surgical repair but never got it fixed. She was a wee bit distracted by a pulmonary embolism that happened because of the traumatic injury to her leg.
She died.
I’d throw out a sarcastic “Give me a break” to the morons who are pushing this agenda but the irony would likely go right by them. I’m am hoping you do send them a copy of this column though, Brie. Please do that.
I will write something not nearly as meaningful in support of nurses there & also for the amazing nurses who have cared for my loved ones when I couldn’t. (including 10 yrs with a small rural hospital as their only lifeline)
But I’m too mad right now.
Monica says
great post and so true for many nurses at the bedside. As I have always been a bedside nurse for 30 + years I have no idea what else happens in the clinical world but would guess it is similar. Thank you for supporting nurses!
brieann.rn@gmail.com says
Thank you!
Darlene Partlow says
Excellent article! People have no idea all that is involved in nursing. It’s not all about giving meds and cleaning bed pans. Daily we have the responsibility of keeping our patients safe. We have to be knowledgeable. We have to manage our time. We have to communicate and work with other team members. We console families. We do so many other things. Nursing is NOT an easy job, but it is extremely rewarding.
brieann.rn@gmail.com says
Agreed. Thank you.
Lisa Pierce says
Great statistical view of a nurses life. I haven’t seen the Senators statement but you really should send this to the idiots that think they know something about nurses.
I was once called to the Administrator’s office for not taking lunch breaks. I told him I didn’t have time. He pointedly told me it was a law. Huh! Imagine that!
How do I find this jerks comment about nurses?
brieann.rn@gmail.com says
Just Google Senator Walsh!
Bea Wallace says
I was an RN working every where in the healthcare system, in every specialty as a staff nurse and then in managment with my Masters degree (earned while I was working and raising two children as a single parent). I have NEVER experienced a card game on the job anywhere at any time of the day or night. Not even in long term care where it might be appropriate to entertain the residents and help them to play anything! Too much to do, too little time, and few bathroom breaks.