As we mentioned, the peds floor's nurses are not as on the ball as the PICU nurses. We know that and that's fine. Their jobs are less stressful and the kids here are recovering, they aren't intensive. Understandable! But what I don't understand is why, after giving our baby diuretics around the clock to make him pee, our nurse didn't think to change his diaper once during the night. Thankfully I got up at 1:00 to check on him because I noticed that all of his bedding was soaked with pee! We had to wake him up and change all the linens so we were all awake until at least 3:00. Then this morning, Elijah's neck dressing was of course falling off and bloody again so our nurse decided to change it (this was the EIGHTH time it has been changed). There's a nurse-in-training shadowing her today so she thought this would be a good learning experience for her to change the dressing herself, even though she has never done it before and even though we told her that no one has had any success with it yet. So the almost-nurse does a horrible job and Dan and I are looking at each other like I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS! I guarantee he'll need a new dressing soon. Maybe I'll just do it myself.
We got little sleep, especially once we realized that the nurses weren't truly caring for Elijah through the night. Dan just headed over to Abbott to get his horrible arm rash checked out and Elijah and I are sitting here watching VT (of course), in hopes that a nap is in the near future.
Ok, so I've been putting this off because I'm a little stressed thinking about it. The Heart Walk is this coming Saturday and I wanted to make nice t-shirts for everyone who is coming for it and I haven't gotten around to it! Does anyone know a place that can print t-shirts quickly and cheaply? I don't even have a design or anything. Any thoughts would be helpful! If E is still in the hospital on Saturday, one of us will come down for the walk. I'm really excited about it! It sounds like a lot of people are still planning on joining us. Let me know if you're interested and planning to attend.
Our new room phone number is 612-874-4969.
6 comments:
I am going to try to call your room. You need to speak to the charge nurse and request that Elijah's nurse not a student with them. You can also request that E not have any float nurses either. We had terrible experiences with floaters and students. The floater was leaving things in his crib. She also told us that he was finally finished with his wean with Methadone, which he was not. She just had too many mistakes and after being there for almost 2 months we were done with all of that BS. Harrison hadn't even come home yet after being born and we demanded that we NOT have any students or float nurses. We had floats in PICU and they were great. I don't know what it is with the 3rd floor, but we felt the same way ya'll do.
Can you tell how upsetting it is for me to hear that it is still an issue after 2 years! Good luck.
Tiffany
On a few occasions we have had to ask to speak to the charge nurse. That usually helps the situation A LOT. We've also had to tell the floor nurses to not do certain things like change dressings or mess with iv's. If they have a problem with it, they can just go talk to their charge. We always try our best to be friendly and cooperative but sometimes you've just got to tell them to do their job right! Good luck.
OH...Megan...that's SO sad.
Just get that little man home!
Once we're off the CVICU floor...I beg everyday to go home..until they cave and let us.
Yes...when you're in a chipper mood, talk to the charge nurse and tell her your concerns. I WISH I was closer to help...I would have changed E's diaper for you (unless it was stinky!)
OK...you keep posting that room number...so, I'm going to have to call you today!
Sending lots of love,
Kathy
We go to a different hospital (U of M - Ann Arbor)but have the same difficulties with floor nurses vs ICU nurses! They went as far as to change her meds & didn't tell us until she started having trouble. When we asked them why, they said that it was a more effective drug than her previous, even though it made her worse! Sometimes I think medical staff sometimes don't stop to think that we are with our kids 24/7 and we know them inside & out! Hopefully you get the little man home soon & can really take care of him!
I am so sorry you are dealing with these bad nurses. You stay strong and tell them what they need to do...it just irritates the heck out of me when they are not doing their job...and yes, their job is to change Elijah's diaper in the middle of the night if they see that he is soaked...
Oh, I am just so angry right now...I am getting on the next plane out of here and I will have a talk with those dreaded nurses!!!!
Okay, I am done now...just get that little chunky monkey out of there and you will be great--at home!!!
Lots and lots of love,
Samantha
Floor nurses were hard for us to deal with too - they never bothered to try to do things all at once. He never got much rest because they were constantly waking him - hence I didn't get any sleep either. Speaking to the charge nurse is a great idea - wish I had known that at the time :-)
Also, I am glad things are going well and you are that much closer to getting out. :-)
Post a Comment