In this first year, I've learned so much about the essentials of nursing. I also learned that due to the current health insurance situation, I double as a psych nurse much more that I ought to. And a translator. And a counselor.
Although much more has been funny rather than not, I have to admit that it has been a tough year. From wrestling incontinent products (diapers) onto thrashing patients to losing half an arm while wiping overweight ones, I've seen quite a bit. They don't tell you these things in nursing school.
You don't hear much about the patients who are off their psychotropic meds and are ready to pinch huge bruises into your arm. You don't get words of how to deal with med-seekers. Serious med-seekers. The kind who stand at their door fifteen minutes before the meds are due, screaming and throwing things in order to ensure you won't be one second late with their Dilaudid. Nope, you get to experience them first hand while you are still in the process of learning to juggle six patients with assessments, meds, documentation, teaching, and call bells.
However, at the end of a long twelve and a half hour shift, I feel more satisfaction than fifteen years of selling insurance. As long as they are all breathing, clean, dry, and properly medicated when I give report, I leave with the knowledge that I did a good job. Okay, I also hope they are satisfied, but sometimes you can't satisfy a patient no matter how hard you try.
Bottom line: there's no place like the med surg floor.
