Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Work annoyances/amusements

The hospital I work at has been added onto many times and now consists of several buildings joined together. I work on a unit in one of the original buildings. I am not sure exactly how old that makes it, but it does mean that our patient's rooms are small. I have gotten around that, so far, by being small and agile; getting around the rooms, and the things in them, in spite of their size limitations. Today, not so much; it wasn't working for me. In all four of my rooms, and for different reasons, my belly would knock things off of patient's tray tables. I was trying not to. I thought I was clear, and then something: fry sauce, med cup, urinal (empty thankfully) hits the floor. Frustrating, but funny at the same time. People are really forgiving when they think it's the baby's fault.
I was asked by a coworker to help out by getting a set of vital signs on his patient. When it came to taking his pulse, I learned that it's hard to accurately count a heart rate, especially an irregular one, with rhythmic baby movements going on in my belly. I must have held onto that man's wrist for a minute and a half trying to count just his pulse and not the baby's movements. He didn't seem to notice that it was taking me an extraordinarily long time, so I just laughed to myself about my troubles after walking out of his room.
I wonder.... what next? So far it's a conversation starter with patients and families. With dementia patients, my belly guarantees the same conversation every time I enter their room. My belly makes random people I have never met grin at me in the halls. My belly makes patients use their call light rather than their bed alarm to get me to help them out of bed for whatever reason. Somehow they take pity on me when I waddle into their room at top speed and demand to assist them wherever they are going. They figure out that I won't be out of breath if they push the call button and ask for help first.
After work, I did, somehow, work up the motivation to vacuum and fold laundry. I rewarded myself with a tasty treat from the box below.
What next? Well I have another month and a half of work left. We'll see.

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