First Impressions

So tonight was my first day of work on my own. For those of you who don't know as a travel nurse I go to new facilities every 13 weeks or so to work. I went through the hospital orientation, 2 days with a preceptor and then I was ready to get to work. So tonight, like I said, was my first night alone. I got report. Sounded like it was gonna be a pretty chill, uneventful shift. So there I was talking to my patients mom. I had assessed my patient, given her some medications, and made a plan for the night. I was standing in the doorway listening to her mom tell me a bit about the patients history. We were talking for quite awhile. I started getting kinda hot...ignored it kept listening... started feeling a little dizzy but didn't want to be rude and interupt, maybe my vision started getting a little blurry. I decided it was time to step away, get some water sit down. So I interrupted and said I needed to step out for a minute. Ummmm that was the last thing I remember before hitting the ground. Yep thats right. So apparently as I turned to leave I ended up passing out. I went down to my knees. I think the mom caught me so I didn't hit my head. So I was laying there and could hear the mom running out to the nurses station saying something about nurse and down. Suddenly there were more people in the room and I was coming to. I tried to get up with the help of another nurse. Guess I wasn't ready as I felt myself going down again I heard people calling Code blue... code blue... ( that is what they call in a hospital when someone goes into cardiac or respiratory arrest. Basically it calls overhead for the whole hospital to hear and gets all the big important people in the room STAT) I remember trying to say no... no... no code blue I'm fine. Well I must not have been because the next thing I knew I was in the bed with a ridiculous amount of people in the room hovering over me. What a way to meet all the new residents and such:) Anyways they kept asking if I was ok. I think I was mostly just embarrassed. What a way to show your competency at a new job:) The PICU doctor insisted I go to the ER even though I looked ok. So I got to take a little tour down to the Emergency Department. I felt so silly bein wheeled off the unit. All the nurses and staff were there looking at me all sympathetically. I thought well I haven't met most of you yet but I will be known as the traveler that passed out from here on out. Got checked out in the ER. Ran some tests, everything was fine. Guess I just wanted to check out the brand new facility and play with the awesome tv/movie/internet/game system they have for patients. It got me a even longer weekend! No work til Monday:) So that was the excitment of the night. Made my poor roomate come out and get me because they wouldn't let me drive home. My poor patient looked a little freaked out. They had to take her out of the room. Guess its not normal to have your nurse become the patient in your bed:) So there you have it. I knew LA Childrens was gonna be exciting and challenging. Just didn't realize I was gonna be the one causing all the excitement!!