Good thing I just renewed my ACLS.
As you may recall, my old unit converted to 12hr shifts, so I'd be coming to them a full 4 hours after everyone else started. Apparently I was to take over the patient load of one of my no-longer-new grad comrades. As far as a first assignment after such a long break, I lucked out.
There were two alert CHFers, a new admission (that had just been done by the previous RN) who was super fun and talkative, and only one confused fall risk patient.
It was hard remembering all the stuff I was supposed to do for the shift. Totally forgot about all those stupid skin notes and turning notes. Still good at identifying rhythm strips at least.
They got new Dynamaps, which totally threw me off. You have to take them out of standby mode and respond to prompts on a screen, which is very weird.
The most interesting/annoying new thing is a different style of bed alarm. It looks like
and it works by clipping a tether to the patient, and attaching the magnet at the other end to a contact point on the pager-type-thing. And it is only effective if the tether is, say, adjusted short enough so that it rings if the patient sits up. If it is long enough for the patient to get to the edge of the bed without alarming, it's not good....This pt had been given Zyprexa before bed, with the intention of knocking her out. It did a great job, and I managed not to wake her up until I had to around 0530 for a vital sign check and BP meds. I hadn't noticed how long her tether was, as she was more or less sleeping on it.
The alarm went off around 0600, and two RNs managed to catch her before she slid off the side of the bed. The pt thought she had to go meet her husband. Tried to reorient her (with minimal success) and readjusted the lead. Also set the main bed alarm again.
I forgot how much fun that part was.
All in all, though, it was a pretty good experience going back. And it was hilarious seeing people's surprise when they realized I was working there.
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