i was called in to help today. we had between 5 and 10 patients. we typically have none to four. in addition to medsurg we also do ER OP (wound care, iv start, lab draws, infusions, legal blood draws, injections, wound vac changes, etc etc etc etc)

i had four patients, one discharged during my shift. i didn’t get report because i came in an hour after shift change. i went right into it, iv site changes/insertions, med admin, hanging fluids, charting meals, doing vitals and assessments and and and

i was doing my best to keep up with everything, doing IVs & infusions and dressing changes for outpatients and helping with IVs in ER, helping with the other patients not formally assigned to me, and i apologized in advance for the junk report i was about to give and said if anyone had questions to just ask because id be staying after for a bit to catch up on charts.

a nurse comes out to be very accusatory and rude about something that could’ve easily been handled if she had asked me like i preemptively told her to instead of getting worked up and not knowing if the several half empty bottles the patient wouldn’t be able to open on their own anyway were imbibed and documented if so or not.

i explained everything to her in a simple fashion, she just said “so xyz is my credit then” and walked away. i rushed through my charting and left; i said short goodbyes to those who said so first.

i felt so FRREEEEAKIN good about today until then. like i told her i knew i wasn’t gonna answer everything because i didn’t get a chance to write down jack because i was literally running all day. i got 10k steps even without working a full shift.

i was so proud of myself for every part of my day. i didn’t get report so of course mine wasn’t good. but it could’ve been so much easier than it was.

why do people have to be like that? it was a simple question, it could even have been a yes or no had it been framed properly. UGH.