My New Mantra

Without giving you all the details on the situation, suffice it to say that an emergency occurred with my patient yesterday and we had to run to the operating room for a cesarean section. That didn't piss me off - that's my job. I'm trained to deal with that and occasionally the adrenaline rush is cool. It's what happened after that that threw me over the edge.

The emergency occurred early in my shift - about 830am. By the time I was finished recovering my patient and was ready to move her to the post partum side, it was 1145am. Notice that I was otherwise occupied during the time I would normally get a 15-minute break to eat my breakfast, so by 1145am I was pretty hungry (and tired already from the adrenaline and stress.)

The charge nurse tells me to take my patient over to post partum, then I can go to lunch. Cool.

I get her over to post partum, transfer her to her bed, clean her up (all by myself because the post partum nurse is nowhere to be found) and go to the nursing station to find her so I can give report and take my lunch.

But apparently there has been a change of plans...

The charge nurse comes to me and says, "Change of plans. You are going to relieve post partum nurse #1 for lunch, then when she comes back, you can give her report and go to lunch."

Ummmmm... I'm not pleased, but ok, whatever. My new mantra runs through my head.

At some point during post partum nurse #1's 30 minute break, it is brought to my attention that plans have changed again. Now I'm to relieve post partum nurse #2 for a lunch, then I can take my lunch.

Now I'm pretty pissed off and I call the charge nurse on it.

"I didn't get a morning break!"

"Nobody got a morning break, Jessica."

Yeah, and I'm sure it's because they were all running their asses off dealing with an emergency.

But I'm too tired to fight. My new mantra runs through my head. Again.

Finally, at 145pm, I take my lunch.

And they wonder why I'm leaving...

What is my new mantra, you ask? Well it changes with every shift, but yesterday it was

4 shifts left.