DAY IN THE LIFE OF A TRAVEL NURSE:😩4 NIGHTS STRAIGHT| OVER IT| REAL LIFE | YOU WANT TO BE A NURSE ?

all right y'all so i've made it to work we're about to walk in and see what the schedule beholds i don't know if i'm gonna be on my floor or if i'm going to be on a or they're gonna float me but let's see so as you can see the schedule is not up so i don't know where i'm going to be i'm being floated that is one of the things about travel nursing that you have to be comfortable with that and you have to be prepared you have to remember that you are meeting in need of theirs and so generally unless it's stating in your contract that you are going to be a float nurse generally you will have a home unit but for whatever reason if they need you somewhere else they will go through somewhere else so i am being floated to another unit so i'm going to try my best because being floated to another unit for the first time like trying to figure stuff out codes where everything is at it throws me a little bit off of schedule so i may or may not have time to like pick up the camera but i'm going to try my best um and so i will see y'all when i get myself situated and sit down all right y'all so i am in the nerd room here they do not have the patience meds in the room so i have to pull my own med so what i do is just get a bag get my labels so i can know what the patient is for and then pull everything at the beginning of the shift i try to do it before everybody comes in here because it'll be a line in a minute um but because i got report late i'm kind of a little tiny bit behind but the good thing is i only have four patients tonight and i am on the cover unit i don't know if i told y'all that so i'm gonna go ahead and pull these mids and then i'll come back [Music] all right so really quickly y'all um here you cannot pass mids until 8 o'clock like the system won't even let you scan them so if you wanted to do them early they won't and so what i do is since i am on a tele floor with covic patients i have to fill out my tele strip this is new for me because it's computerized the hospital that i was at they would give you like a paper strip and you will have to do it but this one i like better because you can just click where the q rst and p waves are and it calculates everything for you but you just have to document them on your own like you have to account for your own tele strip so i do that for all of my patients first before i go get them meds um so that way when i'm doing this that's just like one less thing that i have to worry about so i'm gonna do that and i will come back so now y'all i'm about to well i've already passed one of my meds um the bad thing about the mess not being in the room is that if they are not in the pictures they usually have a patient being but if they're not in the patient's bin then you have to call pharmacy send them up and this is a huge hospital so sometimes it takes them a little bit longer to send it up so that's what i'm doing a lot of my patients now because honestly i don't want to go in there without order meds it's cozy i want to make sure i have everything i need before i go in there so that i don't have to go back so while i'm waiting for that minute to come up i'm just going to go ahead and pass some of my other ones all right y'all i'm finally done passing my meds i'm actually a little bit behind it's ten o'clock and typically i'm done with how someone makes better time but i run into a few small foods so hopefully i finally sit down so i'm gonna try it i have my snack i don't know i have a designated snack period after i pass my meds um so yeah i'm just about to turn right now and then i'm about to take off all this extra [ __ ] because these masks oh that's not irritating it looks like oh there's so much stuff you have to put on i'm closing i don't mind the floor actually it's just the dawning on and off look at my face that bothers me but i'm about to start so i will see you guys in a bit all right y'all really quick so the mints are done i don't have anything left except for i think like the mucinex and then like um ornaments but what i like to do is this is my brain i think i showed y'all this i like to fill this up because it makes it so much easier for me to give report um i've sent a few of you guys this if you do want it send me an email and i will send it to you but i made this up myself um it's more so a tele one but you can use it if you're working med surg or whatever um but it's telling because this little heart right here i color it in if the person is on telemetry or not but other than that you can use this for morning or night shift this can be 9 a.m or 9 9pm just use it accordingly but i've used this every single shift and i update it as i go um it's big enough for me to put everything on here but i write kind of small so anyway i'm about to go over all of my patients look at their history look at any doctor's notes add it on here put ivs with fluids they're on things like that so that way in the morning all i have to do is run through this and it's the easy smooth report it's not like uh they got this or uh they got that or i'm trying to like think or remember stuff everything will be written down here so that's what i like to do i'm gonna fill this out and we'll see how our night goes all right so i made it to the end of this [ __ ] this [ __ ] was a little bit too easy so i'm gonna actually record tomorrow because i want you to see the real like i want to come to y'all telling you all the type of stuff that i've been going through like i only have four pages which happens in the history of never and all of my patients were like easy i only had like one aggregation who kept falling off for like 12 minutes but other than that i had like an easy night like i was able to do homework like playing out stuff like it was a little bit too easy so tomorrow i'm pretty sure i'll be on my regular floor and i'm gonna try to pick up the phone here so i can show y'all like the real of what i'd be going through because i had actually been up there to visit them because i had so much time um and they was going through it it was a cold and doing rapid and this and that so tomorrow or today um i'm not hoping for that i'm never hoping for a tough shift but i think that'll be more like the reality because this literally when i say literally this never happens it's literally never happened so i'm thankful for it because i still got three more nights to go i'm doing four in a row and this is only day one of four so i'm waiting for a report i hate when people are going to look report because i'm here early i get her early and um i'm ready to go and i think that other people who are working during the day like y'all be ready to go so i as a common courtesy like i'm trying to get her early so you can give me a report and you can go about your business um but apparently the person who i'm giving report is known to be late and it's actually it's late late what song is it it's 6 50. so i don't know holly she got to do but if she a little bit too late she's about to get a report with an attitude because i don't like waiting around i'm at the clock as soon as i clock out so i'ma wait for her and i will talk to you all later today all right y'all so i am on my regular floor and it is a [ __ ] show which is usual um i have six stations tonight and they all are pretty much a heavy load um when i say heavy load like i need to do dressing train shoes that were not done during the day one of them has an end sheet that is not inserted correctly wasn't inserted correctly and still not as inserted correctly which means that's going to leave me to do it somebody has urinary retention with the foley so i have to monitor that so i must actually know so what i'm going to do first is i'm going to go introduce myself to each of everybody because right now i only got reported we don't we didn't do that so we set a computer and we talk sometimes we do this and sometimes we don't um i'm going to go actually look at them i'm going to see what they demeanor is i'm going to be able to tell if they need patience if they're gonna be cool patients asking they need anything if they need anything for pain and then i'll use that to determine as well to determine who am i going to start with first but normally i'm going to start with the patient who has the highest security the one who i feel like i am going to be spending the most time on if i can get them out of the way everybody else will be a breeze but it still depends on the level of agility because sometimes people just be extra and you want to get them out the way but sometimes it's easier to just knock out all the easy people so that you can spend that time on them whatever however much because you never know how much time you want to spend on them so after i do that then i'm going to come back and get my meds um for or pull up my meds for all my people and then i will come back and check in amazon y'all see how with nobody in here it's because i'm pulling my meds early i don't know what everybody else be doing maybe they'd just so i just throw it in there so i don't forget if i have insulin i'll put an alcohol powder in it pack a pad in there and stuff like that it just makes it easier for me because i don't like to carry out around a lot of stuff either and i don't use a computer i use them the phone surpasses my meds because they're limited on computers here and i just don't look like lugging around the whole to get over here this is more convenient for me to do it that way so i just want her to like the other hospital that i used to work at is we would have all of our meds in the patient's rooms pharmacy would set them up every morning and you have your meds for the night in the evening so that does make things a lot easier so i do miss that um but this also isn't bad like it wasn't a heart adjustment i wasn't like oh i got to pull my own man i don't know you just get used to things after a while when you're not used to something and that's the thing about um travel nursing is that you have to really be uh not so necessarily resistant to change you have to be you have to easily adapt because things can always change y'all know i'm feeling the nurse in life um um you definitely have to be the type of person who can easily adapt because if not you're not gonna make it or you're gonna be disgruntled every single day because literally stuff is always but i'm about to set up my heater y'all know it's always cold in the hospital and i cannot take it got me a little porter portable here i got it from um lowe's for 15 and when i tell you about this thing be putting on some heat honey maybe put down heat it is 10 minutes to eight so i am about to get started with my night i have six patients tonight we're not having seven because we have an adequate amount of nurses so that is beautiful but um so that means i'm not gonna get any advice and i can just focus on patient care which i love no interruption so i'm going to hit go ahead and get started with that and start passing my meds okay everything let me go ahead and get these meds fast and then i'll come in and check in with y'all throughout the night all right i'll quickly check in i have passed two sets of events one thing i will say like the reason why i do go around and see my patients before i um pull my meds is because i like to know if they need anything because i might work night shifts and i'm telling him they're going to work what their night time is or something to calm them down throughout the night and i tend to pull them regardless just because you never know when i go when i go in there and ask them before i pulled man it's like hey do you need anything sometimes they usually tell me no and some patients will tell you like hey can you put me in a sleeping pill um but then when i go back say they say no i don't need anything i'll go back and everything it's always something they always forget and so i try to be proactive in remembering anything i bring water i bring blankets i will bring um nighttime minutes just so i'm not like running back and forth so that's one thing to keep in mind just trying to be proactive so that you can minimize the time that you are going in and out of the room so i've already passed two minutes for whatever reason tonight i don't feel rushed to do anything like i'm literally going in my own pace it's 8 30 though so i still got good timing so i'm at the chart one thing i also do is i chart as i go um if i especially if i have situations um i don't know i just find it easier and as you do it assessments get super simple so i'm just going to i chart each patient i chart with each patient as i give their meds and so i'm just going to do that right quick so then that way when i'm sitting down for a night i really don't have to worry about it i did have the admission it changes shift the patient was already here before i got here but she didn't do that mission so i had to go over those questions with him and then i have to do the admission so that's what i mean like sometimes a lot of stuff gets left behind but they should be really busy but this nurse i know her she's always leaving stuff behind so i kind of got a little bit of editing about it but at the end of the day it's like what can i do with things you got to do so i'm about to go ahead and get that out the way and then i'll check in with you guys later all right y'all i'm back i've passed three minutes it's 9 15. so i'm not doing too bad i had to redress and change um i heard that nurses they had really good money were you ever thinking about going into a sector nursing that pay as well check out um won't care they don't really good so it looks like i have three more nets to pass um this one is easy i think i had another dressing change to pass actually i mean to do let me see um and this is what i mean by i don't want to be one of them nurses like the nurse who gave me before i noticed she is known for leaving stuff behind like she left me at least three chests and trains when that stuff injury i messed up foley and admission that needed to be done like she left me a lot but surprisingly i don't really have an uh attitude too much because usually i'll be like over it but i'm gonna go loose today so um i'm about to see who i'm gonna be next i think i got another dressing change and then i just changed her i did her is my girl sorry yeah i have two more dressing changes so i think i'm gonna go ahead and do the most difficult one just figure it out the way and then i'll come back and check it out all right y'all so i'm back from doing my how many pages have i passed past past past past so i got two more minutes to test i think one of them don't even have that actually um but anyway i can't wait to tell y'all the wound dressing that i did like so my patient has like a they started as a hernia they picked up their grandkid or something like that and they had to do surgery and so her that abdomen is just open it looks so cool like i probably would do good in one dressing because that's like they don't gross me out the only thing that grosses me out is like tricks i cannot do saliva and stuff like that but this one was actually good like i actually enjoyed changing their dressing it took me about 20 minutes or whatever but i don't know it's just something about like taking the old one off and me and making it all neat and new and pretty so i am done with that one i have to go back and give them some pain meds um but other than that they're good so yes also i do have two more years to give it's 10 o'clock now so technically i'm late but listen i'm not rushing so this one i can give real quick and then this one is nothing okay so i got a few people who are diabetic so i just have to get insulin and that's it so i'm about to go ahead and do that and next time i talk to y'all hopefully i will be done passing my meds especially when you get a crab report and your friends are left um so i'm at the chart eat my snack and i'll hit y'all later all right y'all so it is 5 18 i only have an hour i counted as an hour because around 6 30 doesn't everybody start coming in i can record and i'm dipping out but anyway i have an antibiotic that i need to hang i'm going to check on everybody make sure that good go grow online go over my brain make sure i got everything i need on there and then that will end the night um but of course i'm gonna come in like when i'm walking out just in case something happens between now and then or just to kind of just end my night here um so i'm gonna hang this right quick and i will be right back all right y'all so it is 6 37 and we didn't have a secretary so that means that nobody made the schedule for the morning shift so when the secretary for the morning shift got here she has to do that so we have nurses here we have cnas here but nobody can give report because nobody knows where they're going so this is what i mean by like this is the type of stuff you have to deal with um it's not like a big deal but y'all know i like to get out of here one time i'm the earliest we can clock out is 708 and i'll be at the clock at 7.08 for now everybody is just waiting around trying to figure out who has what assignment and then we'll go from there so i will probably see y'all when i'm walking off the bus so what end up happening is that i just went up to a nurse and was like hey do you want to take my assignment because i didn't really have like after everything was said and done like yes she left me a lot of stuff to do um during the night but it was still manageable and the lady was already cool like i'll take your assignment so that way i didn't have to wait for the secretary to assign everybody and then even better she um what else to say even better she had already had the patience like a few days before so she was familiar with everybody so i didn't have to give her like an in-depth report it was like more like a um it was more like an update so now it's 703 so i have a few more minutes before i can clock out like i said i'll be at the door like i'm not the person where i'm about to stay late i don't i think in the history of being a nurse i've probably only stayed late once honestly and that was when i was working here because my assignment was so shitty and i didn't want to leave the day nurse with a host and stuff so i am about to wait so i don't have to crack out and then i'm going to be filed i'm really tired like i started sleeping in the car and got out late i mean i wasn't late for work but i was later than i usually normally by the time i woke up i'm usually in the hospital but we have seven patients today but i got one empty bed and i have one district tonight so we'll see how the night goes and i will come back in and check with you guys all right guys so i am about to clean off my face i'm like a germaphobe and it's crazy for german folks to be working in the hospital but i bleach everything down throw everything away because people can just give me stuff all over here i throw out i get in there habit of like i just started throwing everything away penis paper pencils all that stuff and then i'm gonna bleach everything down so my space is clean i clean my hair i clean everything else so that's what i'm about to do [Music] but this stuff i don't know maybe these cost less but these things take forever to dissolve so i usually just hook it up like 30 minutes or so before i need to go in there that way i'm not like trying to do it in the room because these things are like annoying and you're not supposed to shake it i heard but i'm like how else are you gonna do it if i didn't shake it it would take forever too long and then y'all we don't have a secretary so this type of stuff that you have to deal with sometimes when you're traveling and we did we almost didn't have a third cna but they took the secretary and put them on the floor so that helped us out tremendously but um tonight is going to be a good night then i tell y'all i have seven patients i'm not even tripping when it's like this like i'm moving my own pace i don't stress i don't worry i do what i can because i notice when i'm like upset irritating to worry like on night go bad versus what i'm just like it is what it is my night still made me busy [Music] somebody's asking for jasmine no yeah she was saying something at the um she never came she never came no see what i mean um damn i lost my train of thought oh you know saying when i just go with the flow i feel better about my night i know that i'm only one person and i can only do so much so i don't even trip when they be like you got seven patients we don't have a cnn y'all have a secretary it's like okay no problem i'm moving at my own pace because i can't afford to be stressed out i do what i can so that's what i'm doing tonight i'm about to get ready to pass my meds it's eight o'clock so i will see you guys later all right y'all so all my mentor passed i have six patients now and i'm getting an admit from icu which actually i don't mind get transfers because i mean i don't have to do a whole admission history um so that patient is coming and then i'm getting rid of a patient one is getting discharged to a sniff so we i usually don't have discharges like night shift rarely gets discharged most of that is done during the day which is one of the reasons why i like night shifts like there are a lot of perks like a lot of orders are usually put in during day shift um a lot of dressing changes are usually done during day shift there's just a i don't know i don't see myself ever doing day shift unless i like have to because i get like if you have a family or something like that you want to be home with your kids and stuff like that i get that but i don't have so i just don't foresee me ever doing day shift too many people too many distractions too much required of you it's already enough required of us as nurses in general so on top of that shift i'm good but i'm about to go ahead and try i didn't charge as i went along because i knew that i was about to be busy today not busy but the thing about me charting is i go like some days i do it if i'm like in a mood where i'm like okay i'll chart as i go i'll do it but then some days i'll just wait um so i'm about to eat my snacks and um wait on my new patient i already got report the room is already set up and then we'll go from there that's pretty much it so i'll see you guys in a bit so my new adaptation okay so i see you so this is why it's important that you like pay attention to certain things before they actually come up here because the patient honestly shouldn't be here um what i'm dealing with right now is a fixed rbr but this is not a new thing and so right now i'm just trying to get the rate under control and so that is what i'm dealing with right now um luckily i have a large charity done it is 3 37 in the morning i don't mind stuff like this because it makes the night go by a little bit faster my dream on night three and i was actually tired i was like super super tired um tonight but i'm awake now that that has happened so i'm just waiting waiting waiting so i will check in with you guys later all right now back with it okay all day is giving out any antibiotics which is rare but uh it is 4 40. so um i'm still working on that what am i doing focus i'm still working on that heart rate at this point the patient needs to be transferred because i've did several things and i am unable to get it under control i just want to check in before let y'all know how much is going it's not even honestly it's not a bad night it's not like i don't i don't feel overwhelmed or anything like that i feel pretty decent so i wish this was my last night i was gonna have to come back today so we shall see so i um next time i see y'all because i don't think between now and then i don't think i'm gonna have time to even come back and talk because i wanna make sure that i got everything done so i'll probably see y'all when i'm um actually leaving out so okay y'all when i say it always happened at the last minute and y'all see my hair yo that's that is the negative of how the last hour of my shift went because anytime i feel like any time i'm in your room every 15 minutes trying to give you medicine or something like that i don't have like you're not a patient who needs to be on a regular floor mind you i had seven patients today so i don't have time for that so we were never able to get the heart rate under control and the doctor just kept putting an order at the order at the order at the order and i'm just like literally at the last minute i get 6 30. he put in like 15 damn orders i wanted to start a drip i wanted to push more oppressors like mind you i've been with the patient all night i've been in that room every 15 minutes trying to get that heartbreak under control and this is not an easy patient like this is somebody who is not oriented somebody who is combative you know what i'm saying so it's not making it easier on me bro so the girl that i gave reports to like first of all seven patients in day shift like are they really trying it like that's not okay she was so mad but the crazy thing about nurses from my experience like we will complain amongst ourselves but nobody actually in my experience nobody has actually ever stood up and said no i'm not taking this many patients like no now patient safety is a great it's like no now my license is at risk like nobody actually stands up and does that and i feel like the reason why facilities will overwhelm you with no regard for you it's because nobody says anything we just all complained amongst ourselves like the whole as soon as they came in everybody looking like what but i told her i was like girl cause i gotta come back tonight i was like girl if you don't do nothing else today but me and you both get that patient off this floor like we cannot give our time to somebody who needs that level of care it's just not rational like if i am in your room every 15 minutes if i am on the phone with the doctor every five minutes trying to get whatever under control like no that patient needs to go 7 23 you all know i'd be at that clock in 708 i was still giving a report at 708 and that ain't me so that's how you know like it was rough that's my little red but i'm so thankful for rest because my ass is about to head home take me a nice hot shower and go to sleep so i will see you guys tonight i look so crazy look at my hair y'all like that's how you know when the ponytail would be looking ruffled and oh child i had a rough night but i will see y'all tonight all right y'all so i told y'all i was gonna show y'all the real of this [ __ ] because like it is no joke i have to take a minute to like cry a little bit because it's the beginning of this shift and i am overwhelmed like me and a person who i just got report from like we were literally crying together because we are tired we are so tired like they say that it's the year the nurse and they say that they care about us they say they care about patient safety but literally this is a business it's all about them dollars that's all i care about but i had a patient that i was working on diligently last night i'm talking about in that room every five minutes and if i have to be in your room every five minutes you don't need to be on a regular med search tele floor you need to be in icu or you need to be in a step down unit where the people have the time to delegate or to treat you properly i cannot have seven patients in being in somebody's room every five minutes like it's just not feasible like somewhere patient care is going to lack and they had seven patients this morning and she was like the girl who i could report to which i understood she was like what you got to be kidding me and it's frustrating because we care about our patients we want the best for them we advocate for them and i don't know it's not necessarily a facility fault or anything like that it's just that we don't have staff we don't have the adequate staff to treat patients and sometimes i feel like that doesn't matter patient safety patient care that's just a word it doesn't have any meaning behind it because if it did why would you give us seven patients you know if it did why do we not have adequate resources like why do we not have normal saline on the floor you know we gotta mix an antibiotic why do we not have bags to mix it that takes time for me to go find it from another floor like if i it's just it's frustrating it's frustrating and um this is the beginning of my shift and this is night four and i just wanted to come on here and show you all the real because y'all might see nurse bae and everybody looking cute with their uniforms on and you see the money but that money don't mean nothing if mentally you're not stable like this takes a toll on you like nurse burnout is real mind you i haven't even been doing this for that long and i am tired i am legit tired because i care about my patients and i don't want to be that nurse who like leaves things behind or doesn't do things because i'm tired i just don't want to be that nurse like i care about my patients i want the best for them but it's like i'm only one person there's only so much that i can do like nursing is a very tough job like you have to be on your [ __ ] at all times i'm talking about every single moment and it doesn't make it any better when you don't have resources it doesn't make it any better when you are overloaded with patience it doesn't make it better when you don't have a manager to ask questions it does it just at least event before i go out there because if i don't my mind is not going to be equipped enough to focus and so it's okay to come in and go in the bedroom go in the bathroom cry it out put your big girl pennies on and head back out there and do what we supposed to do save live so i'm about to take 30 more seconds to breathe go out there do the damn thing and i will talk to you all in the field all right y'all as y'all can see i'm sitting down god must have felt it inside of me because um it's nine o'clock and i have all my dance pass which is a miracle um i feel so much better now i'm the type of person like i need to cry and get it out so that i can move on like crying is like healthy for me but even if it's not like don't feel bad if you are that type of person who just needs to step away from me for a second because i'm telling you if you don't sorry i'm cleaning out my nose i don't know don't mess make your nose snotty if you don't you're not gonna be able to go about your day so i needed that i needed to just breathe when i saw you me and the girl i was giving report to were like literally crying like we were literally just sitting there like in disbelief like is this reality like damn like this this is really how they treat nurses so [Music] i feel better um i still have stuff to do i'm tired i'm glad that today is my fourth day and i'll be off for the next three so i can get some rest when i tell you self-care is so important as a nurse like it's non-negotiable and if that self-care means sleeping all day there's nothing wrong with that so i'm about to go ahead and chart um i have to take a patient down to the morgue and right after i do that i have to um i'll probably be getting a new patient thankfully we only have six tonight so that makes me feel better i'm drained if y'all could tell i am drained like literally to my core so i'm about to eat my snack because i don't know i gotta have a snack break you know see what the night behold so i will check in with y'all thank you you're welcome y'all we all behind what's the real of it what's the real one be a travel nurse i'm not feeling this bad but it could be overwhelming songs it could be a lot of time this is just what it is i guess i'm not even travel nursing traveling somewhere so because you're here to meet their needs and i'm already short staffed i don't think nobody's going to score that i'll work on this course now maybe like a few people look um even queer staff no tell me have you ever worked in a good hospital or y'all fully staffed charged nurses good y'all got all your resources like tell me because in my experience i've never had that luxury the floor that i trained on was like the hardest floor because that's why i'm like i'm cool with this but this has been like every day it's cool like if you have every like every once in a while you have a shift that's crazy but literally every day this is not an easy assignment by any means like every day we got seven patients every day we don't have a cna every day we don't have a second it's like always something and i understand that it's covered it's going up i didn't even own a club before but i understand people are getting sicker but something got to get you know people only take so much you hit your your limit where you just get burnt out like burnt out and i got another assignment at the end of the month and i feel like i should have took a break i definitely should have took a break but come march april i think i'm gonna take a month off to just breathe and do absolutely nothing do whatever i want to do besides work so anyway let me finish i'll talk to you later

Channel: Sincerely Shannon

Views: 154,056

Keywords: Travel nurse, Blacknurses, Night shift, Nurse

Id: 3XCapA9r7Z4

Length: 41min 34sec (2494 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 08 2021