Shift Change!!!! *Finally* and an emotional week!

Shift change:
I picked up my new schedule last night at work and was please to see that I'm scheduled for evening shift (3pm-11pm) now!!!!  I'm so excited to get my sleep schedule back a bit and to be on a more normal schedule with the rest of the world!  I'll miss having dinner with Doug every night but knowing that I'll be able to snuggle next to him after he has fallen asleep is nice to know!  I'll also miss working with my amazing co-workers but I will still see them from 7pm to 11pm!  Just won't be the same!  My new shift starts on February 7th!!!  Can't wait!

Emotional part of my week:
This week has been a bit different at work.  We keep getting patients who are not really "cardiac" patients but it has given me some experience on treating different disease processes!  On Sunday night, one of my co-worker's had a patient that was quickly going down hill.  She was bleeding internally and eventually passed away.  The patient was aware that she probably wasn't going to make it through the night (craziness!!!) and called her family.    They changed her "code" status to only comfort care and she quickly went down hill in a matter of 12 hrs.  Towards then end, we knew it was going to happen and we watched her heart rate on the monitor slowly go from 70's to 20's then eventually...nothing!  So sad.  With the new law, 2 RN's can pronounce someone instead of needing a doctor, so I went in with my co-worker and pronounced her dead.

Never in my life have I experienced that as a nurse.  I have experienced death in the family but it gave me a different perspective to be outside helping others.  Truly amazing to be apart of something so powerful and to comfort others.

2nd day in a row....another sad case *lol*  This time I was graced with a cancer patient.  She was pretty much in her last stages of cancer and I was able to care for her.  Made me so gracious for my health and my ability to help her in simple ways as she was dealing with her disease process and pneumonia.  She definitely touched my heart a bit and was happy my shift wasn't too hectic so I could spend a lot of time making her comfortable.

Even though I complain about my job and hours and such but on days like this it makes me so happy to be a nurse and to know that I have the ability to help others in ways most people can't.  It shows that I made the right choice to be in the right profession for me! =)