I have done L&D, Med/Surg, ER, OR and Neuro/Trauma ICU. After working Critical and Neuro/Trauma, I found my calling and ICU is what I do. Once lovely covid hit, I worked COVID ICU a LOT. Being a professional baby catcher is not my thing either. I couldn't get past the whining and complaining and well...it is just um...gross to me. I didn't mind c-sections in the OR but other than that, there are others who are better suited than me for that LOL! I take it you understand that
Bless you for working hospice! That takes a special person!
My niece is ICU around Mandeville, or maybe in NOLA now, haven't spoken to her in a while. She's been killing it with the OT hours. For a while, she was working 7 on, 3 or 4 off, and 7 on again. In another year or 2, she plans on starting to work for her CRNA.
Hospice had its own rewards. I have to paint a picture first. I'm 6'6", about 240 lbs. I still wear a crew cut, but back then, I wore a flat top, and like all good ole boys, it was a rare moment to see this redneck without some Copenhagen in his mouth (well, not around patients). And I only worked non-business hours (5P-8A). This was in DEEP, DEEP, east Texas...you know, the part of the state that joined the confederacy.
So this little old black lady, she had lung CA and was just barely ambulatory, called our after hours line because she was feeling terrible. She said she was really bound up, and come to find out she had a really low impaction. You can imagine how that went. 15 or 20 seconds of work then she'd say "ok honey, I need a break for a minute or so," then another 15 or 20 seconds of work, then a break and so on.
After I got everything cleaned up, she got up out of bed and said "Thank God for you, I feel so much better," then gave me a big hug around the neck.
I'm a total mercenary for money - as long as the earning of it is legal, moral, and ethical, then the more the better. But there is no money that can substitute for that kind of memory.
Lots of nurses think hospice is "love 'em to death with morphine." Maybe some, but for people who are really close to the end and in a lot of pain, it's a real challenge to give too much Roxanol. Had another cancer patient I ended up sitting most of the night with. I was giving her Roxanol 20 mg QH. And I knew she needed it hourly because within a couple minutes, her vitals would go back to WNL. But at about the 55th minute or so after the last dose, HR 150s, RR 40s, BP 180/120.
