STRESSED

It was one of "those" nights at work tonight. Not so much for me, but for the nursing staff. I dont' ever recall hearing CAT MICU so many times in one evening.. gotta be a record.. and by the sounds of loud sobs and wails a bit later, I'd say it was not successful. Ah.. working at the hospital has it's low points. And then the call for help on Psych.. CODE YELLOW..ALL MALE EMPLOYEES REPORT TO.... Yike ! Must have been REALLY bad there. And not just once, but 3 times the distress call was heard over the PA.
We had our own minor disasters going on in my unit.. Patients were unruly and very uncooperative and downright surly. One woman called in to complain that she was going to call the local paper because her husband's call light had been on for 30 minutes and he had urinated on the floor.. and.. and... who was going to clean it up????!!!! Oh, my.. such a mess..not just the floor, but the staff was wearing so thin.. Patients came tonite for admission who should have been taken to the MICU.. and we did transfer them.. but they were in trouble in the mean time. The woman who called in about her husband called me too to complain.. I reported it immediately to the nurses, but they were overwhelmed trying to triage their patients.. and make sure we had no sentinal events in the process. She spent so much time calling in to complain.. and it took precious time away from the staff trying to rectify the situations around them. Everyone was feeling a bit ragged around the edges.
I assure you, no one sat around tonite reading the newspaper.. everyone was racing trying to get control of their assignments.. and then more patients were added to the load.
You'll remember one time I wrote about the full moon and how it affects people? especially our patients in the hospital? Well, this was a prime example. The full moon was January 3. Baby Annabelle was born on January 4, and this wild and crazy evening occurred on January 7. Things will calm down now.. It is usually 2-3 days before with a calm on the full moon, and then everything falls apart for 2-3 days after..
I'm hoping I'll get a day off tomorrow, but the way things are going, I just sort of doubt it. That never stops me from praying about it though.
I'm tired now.. it's been a long evening, and even if I wasn't stressed out myself, I know others were VERY stressed. I'm thankful for my God who fills me with His peace in the midst of turmoil.