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    Stories About Nurses
    Stories About Nurses
    Stories About Nurses
    Ebook127 pages2 hours

    Stories About Nurses

    By Andrew Bellman

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    About this ebook

    Stories About Nurses is a collection of fictional short stories about people who are Registered Nurse (RN) professionals and what it is to be one. These are various situations nurses find themselves in and how they deal with them. From job related issues to family and relationship issues, these stories portray how they handled them. A very demanding field, nursing can be stressful, frightening, satisfying and very gratifying.
    An important aspect of the medical field, these nurses tell how they are the eyes and ears of everyone else involved in patient care. as situations progress they learn to handle them both themselves and with the help of everyone around them.
    These stories reflect the challenges and individual growth of each nurse and how a positive result can come from the worst of days. Each situation was an experience this author has had in patient care and dramatized for the book.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAndrew Bellman
    Release dateFeb 7, 2017
    ISBN9781370999422
    Stories About Nurses
    Author

    Andrew Bellman

    Andrew Bellman is an RN ​in the Western New York area who has been in the nursing field in various capacities since 1991. He decided to write down some of the interesting things that happen to him in a journal as a form of stress relief.Someone mentioned he should write a book. Not interested in writing an autobiography, he decided to create characters and insert these situations in their lives. Have them respond similarly to them as he did and conclude with a positive take away.They are works of fiction but based on the real thing.Volume 2 is in the works!

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      Book preview

      Stories About Nurses - Andrew Bellman

      Stories About Nurses

      Volume 1

      Andrew Bellman

      Copyright 2017 by Andrew Bellman

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Wendy Breathes Easier

      Jake’s Cheyne Reaction

      Kris Goes Coronary

      Jill Pulls the Trigger

      Kelly Measures Up

      Tracy’s Trach Ties

      Sandy Clears the Air

      Ron Learns to Walk

      Nicki Gets Her Rhythm Back

      Author Bio

      Wendy Breathes Easier

      I am an RN and my name is Wendy, I work in the ICU of a medium sized hospital. I have 2 children, both boys in high school. Divorced for three years and no current romantic prospects in the picture, although always keeping an eye out for a good guy! We’re into hiking when the boys have time between their activities. Not as much as I would like, but as we all know time can be elusive. The physical activity helps keep me in shape, but I remain a few pounds over weight for my height. Which bugs me because if I could just get out there more often the pounds would take care of themselves. My boys are good kids, they work hard and it shows. Good grades, nice friends and the cops aren’t knocking on the door!

      Lately I have been struggling with my choices in life. My marriage was impulsive but we had a few good years, just the last couple were really hard, as we knew we had grown apart in so many ways, we had to end it. A great result has been he’s a much better dad since he left the house. And I don’t have to talk to him about anything else but kid issues, which is fine with me. On those we mostly see eye-to-eye.

      My career choice is what it is, I was meant to do something like this. Solving problems, serving others, seeing patients lives get better, or at least working to help them live it a little better. The ICU demands my focus on their immediate needs and I like the pace. I like managing the effects of heart attacks, strokes, some trauma, various out of control medical conditions, and psychological issues that people deal with in these tough situations. But I have been thinking more and more lately that I should have reached higher when I had the chance. A better income would mean more money for college funds and more of the extras that other folks seem to have. The bills are getting paid and the ex does his part but it frustrates me that right now my situation could have been better. It has been stressing me more and more lately and was on my mind when I walked into the ICU for my shift and (somehow got the short straw) found I was to take care of a bad trauma coming from the ER.

      Usually Anne handles these, and does it well, but she’s on vacation. The report coming from the ER sounded like they had the patient stabilized, scans done, bleeding stopped, orthopedic surgery later today. But the thing that troubled me was the pneumothorax of the left lung and he will need a chest tube placed on arrival. ETA 15 minutes! Chest tube? Placed by the surgeon at the bedside? I'm assisting with set-up and maintenance? I think I pulled a chest tube out two years ago but other than that? Shit!!

      OK, time to get it together…Anne is so good at these situations and I seem to have been delegating to her these past few years when I am out of my comfort zone. Don’t get me wrong, I’m by her side running for this and that as quick as possible, but she runs the show! She thinks on her feet and seems to have this great knowledge base that I just assume came from her past experiences which definitely gives her a leg up under pressure. I don’t have that same experience, how am I going to get through this?

      Well, all I can do is dig in and hope I don’t screw this whole thing up. Damn. What I can do is make sure the room is set-up for our guy from the auto accident. We admit all the time and I can at least be prepared, oxygen is available and working, an ambu bag with mask on hand, extension tubing and back up cannulas and connectors, check. Suction set-ups next, I have 2 working pumps but only one disposable canister. Make a mental note to gather anything I might need as I go through. Do I need two for this guy? Respiratory distress but not on a ventilator, maybe one for the chest tube? Don’t freak out, not right now! Assume he’ll crash and end up needing everything and anything. Next, bed is working and bed scale is zeroed for medication weight, IV poles are in the room and 2 extra pumps are here, in the drawer is pump tubing, secondary tubing, sterile dressings, IV caths, etc. Looks good, so on to the supply room. As I go I hear Kelly, who is in charge today, say she brought up the policy and procedure on chest tube placement and management on the computer so I can read up and be ready. Of course… just stop and read 20 pages on policy while the patient arrives and the doctor waits. That’ll happen! Then Barb stops me and asks if I sent for a Pleurovac® for the procedure because we don’t have one in stock up here and thank goodness she did because I am not all there yet. OK, there is John the aide, I send him down to central supply for the Pleurovac® and off he goes. I gather up a suction canister, a 60cc syringe (for a possible NG), three sets of sterile gloves of varying sizes and oral suction equipment, along with an ICU gown as ours can snap around the arms for IV’s and the ER never uses them, and disposable bed pads in case he bleeds out anywhere. Back in the room I survey the scene for readiness. I’m sure I have forgotten a few things but generally we’re ready.

      Kelly gives me a look and says, Take a breath while you read the policy, it really is short and to the point! I get the point and head off to the computer trusting her that I am not wasting precious time. She moves the intubation and code carts by the room saying a pneumothorax can sometimes cause crazy arrhythmias from the built up pressure in the chest shifting things to one side. As I sit and begin to read I get the call that ETA is 10 minutes, they are getting ready to move him now. To my surprise the write-up is short and to the point: get baseline vital signs and make sure the patient is as comfortable as possible, use the chest tube to equalize the pressure, maintain an airtight seal, keep below chest level, monitor for leaks or bleeding, document respiratory status and any drainage. Post procedure have padded clamp in case of damage to the system and Vaseline Gauze® to cover the hole if the tube comes out.

      Wow, I have to make a padded hemostat and gather up some Vasoline Gauze®! And as I get back to the room here they come, the usual organized craziness starts, we get him off the cart and on to the bed without loosing any IV lines, hook him up to the bedside monitor including blood pressure cuff and pulse ox. He appears stable although with some obvious shortness of breath. I listen to his lungs, diminished on the left but no sounds of fluid, I finish listening to his heart and bowel sounds and check for pulses and edema. He has left sided chest lacerations and rib fractures and a left tibial injury in a splint with lower leg edema. I note a lot of bruising on the left side trunk and leg. His heart rhythm is stable but tachy and I am sure he is in some pain. His dressings are intact with minor leakage, his Foley catheter is draining clear yellow urine and he definitely needs a bath!

      The chief surgical resident came with him and as all of us have the patient settled in and relatively comfortable he says he is ready to do the thoracostomy and can we go ahead and sedate the patient. We let him know it’s time and ask if he understands, he says that they told him about the need to do this in the ER and he understands. He also wants to know how bad it will hurt and the surgeon gives him some line of crap about bee stings and pressure. The patient is positioned with his left arm over his head to expose the area. We set up the procedure tray and fill the Pleurovac® with saline, the doctor gets gowned masked and gloved, the site is draped and it hits me. I can’t believe I am assisting with this, what if the doctor hits the lung or an artery or something! I’m not ready to handle it if he goes into arrest! I think STOP, you can do this and whatever happens you have to be here for this patient and just do the best you can, get over yourself and even if it feels like getting a tooth pulled by pliers you have to step up! OK, don’t think, act and hold it together for this guy. As I accept that we are moving ahead my mind starts to clear and I speak out.

      Has anyone gotten a consent signed for this? Everyone stops and looks at each other puzzled; Kelly grabs the chart and says she doesn’t see one. She runs off and the doctor asks the patient if he understands the benefits and risks as they had discussed earlier and he signs the form she brought back. And with that, we sedate him and get down to business.

      The chief resident is talkative and mentions he will approach through the 3rd and 4th rib intercostal space and from a mid-axillary line, as the free air will collect anteriorly with him lying supine. I guess he’s talking to me but I am not entirely sure. He injects the local anesthetic and preps the site, with the scalpel he makes a 3-4 cm incision and I watch, fascinated that I am as calm as I am anxious. I talk to

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