I know from my survey, many of you are interested in what a day in my life looks like as an RN. I just want to start off by saying I don’t work in the hospital, I work in the nursing home, and pediatric home health. Both sides of the spectrum! 🙂
These are my top 3 littmann stethoscopes. 2 are adult and 1 is pediatric. I love this brand!
I will go through one full day of what I do (round-about) at work and at home on the weekend as a Charge Nurse. I am in charge of the LVN’s, Med-Aide’s, and CNA’s and all of them take care of over 100 Residents.
4:00am- alarm goes off to get up, get dressed, and head off to work.
This is my daily gear(watch with a second hand, stethoscope, pulse oximeter, and a pen light) along with scissors and a blood pressure cuff, oh and course a black pen! 🙂
4:30am-Clock in and grab the treatment book, look over the 24 hour books on both sides (100/300 hall and 200/400 hall). I always talk to the night shift nurses about how everything is going, which residents are in the hospital, who are the new admits (new residents who have been admitted to the nursing home), discharges (who has left), which residents they are worried and why, and how their overall night was.
5:00am-7:30am I start doing my treatments on the residents and make sure that the CNA’s are making their beds, that they are assisting the residents with getting up and ready for breakfast, and for the residents that refuse to get up for breakfast I usually double check why and let their hall nurse know.
7:30am-8:30am I help serve trays to the residents and make sure that each resident is getting the appropriate food for their diet and also get them anything they may need. I also have to document how much each resident is eating after each meal, so I need to be in the dining room, aware of how much they are consuming, and offering them an alternative meal if they don’t like the one provided.
8:30am-10:30am This is the time where ALL he** breaks loose. NO idea why, but it seems like after all of the residents have completely woken up, stuff just hits the fan. I try to be on top of everything that happens, or could potentially happen and since we have a weekend manager that is on call, I try to keep them aware of the situations that occur that they need to be notified about. This is usually the time I am helping the hall nurses the most, just to get everything done in such a short period of time.
10:30am This is the time that I usually take a break for 30 mins but let’s be real(breaks don’t happen that often when you’re in charge). My husband (Shane) will usually bring Brielle and breakfast during this time, if I am able to step away for a little bit to eat.
11:00am-1:00pm This is usually when I am finishing my treatments, helping my residents with lunch and documenting their meal intakes, making sure all the orders from the physicians are taken care of during the day shift and don’t get shoved over to the night shift, communicating with both residents and nurses, and trying to finish everything so that I can leave on time. (HA!)
1:15pm I come home and hope and pray that Brielle is ready for a nap by the time I get showered and ready to lay down with her.
2:00pm-5:00pm I lay down with brielle for a nap, and since she tosses and turns, it usually results in me not sleeping too well.
5:00pm-9:00pm This is the time where we make dinner, choose to go get dinner somewhere, or choose to go to visit Shane’s parents for a little bit and head home so we can shower and have Brielle in bed, so that I can TRY to go to bed early enough to get some sleep before that 4am alarm hits again the next morning!
That would be a typical day in my life, if stuff doesn’t hit the fan (some mornings, I am just trying to save a residents life and all of that other stuff gets thrown to the side!). I love working weekends and being in charge (of a LOT of people), but it definitely doesn’t come without stress and patience all.day.long. My favorite part of each work day, is definitely coming home to my hubby, and my baby girl! 🙂
Oh and happy #nationdaughtersday to my favorite little girls, Brielle and Rochelle! ❤
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