“This must be something that you love to do…” Day in the life of a nurse

“[…] Sometimes I drive to work, sometimes I travel. I have to always keep praying because, honestly, not every day I would feel like going. I have to keep talking to myself and say: ‘This is not for you; this is for the patients. They need help and you have the capacity and the knowledge to help them.’

“I have to keep talking to myself: ‘Just go. You never know. There might be someone needing your smile, needing your words, needing, yuh know, something to ease the pain.’ This is the way I sometimes have to prepare myself to go…”

Wired868 highlights the day-to-day lives of everyday Trinbagonians in our ongoing series entitled: ‘A day in the life…’ Today, we speak with a nurse:

How would you describe yourself in two words?

Determined and joyful.

Did you always aspire to be a nurse? What was your motivation for getting into the field?

I did not always aspire to be a nurse. One day, my big brother got a cut, and I just put a plaster on his finger, and from there, I said I wanted to help people through health. I began asking around and I began COSTAATT to become a general nurse.

At what age did you get into nursing and how long have you been a nurse?

I began my studies in 2010 at 17 years old, and I finished in 2015. In April 2016, I began working in the hospital.

How do you cope with working on shifts, and how do you prepare for each shift?

(With a small smile) I don’t always cope, but I don’t have a choice—that’s the nature of the job. They told us in the interview that the shifts are 7-3, 1-9, 8-8. You don’t have a preference as to which one you want; they mix up the shift, and you have to work it.

My sleep pattern is off, but I am trying to adapt.

Can you give our readers a summary of your typical work day?

Sometimes I drive to work, sometimes I travel. I have to always keep praying because, honestly, not every day I would feel like going.

I have to keep talking to myself and say: ‘This is not for you; this is for the patients. They need help and you have the capacity and the knowledge to help them.’

I have to keep talking to myself: ‘Just go. You never know. There might be someone needing your smile, needing your words, needing, yuh know, something to ease the pain.’ This is the way I sometimes have to prepare myself to go.

I have recently been reassigned to the ICU department. Before, I worked in Accident and Emergency (A&E). The atmosphere in ICU, it is very different; it is one-on-one, but in Accident and Emergency, it was really crazy.

ICU is a more controlled environment—one nurse to one patient, and you do everything for that patient. In the ICU, the knowledge base required is different. You have to be more assertive and have a bit more wisdom. It’s autonomous.

You’re not waiting for a doctor to follow through with a plan; you have to come up with a plan to nurse your patient, and if you can’t do anything else, then you call.

In A&E, it was different—you have to wait for the plan.

Every day is a different day. Some days, you go to work, your patient is there, and they cannot respond to you; they’re in a coma, and you have to know exactly what to do with that patient. Some days, you just walk in, and the patient is crashing on you; you have to do CPR.

But you always have a team nearby, or else you will not be able to make it because everything happens so quickly. There are slow days, and there are fast days, and it have days that are in-between; so you have to always, always (clapping for emphasis) be alert in the ICU.

Sometimes, your patient goes from 0 to 100; other days, they can go from 100 to 0. You can be there by a patient’s bedside nursing them; all the vital signs are good, and then you just see a flat line.

There are just about six to eight patients in the ICU where I am stationed. Every day is not the same, but it is an exciting field.

Do you have a fixed lunch period in this environment?

Not really. There is a fixed time, but you don’t always fit into the time. It depends on what is happening with the patient or the ratio of nurses. We get two breaks: a 15-minute break and lunch for one hour.

What’s most challenging for you in terms of the performance of your duties?

As I have just started in ICU, I am not always able to manage the patient by myself, depending on the condition. I don’t have knowledge of every condition that comes in, so that’s my most challenging moment, when I have to ask for help so that I will be on par until I get more experience.

Also, communicating with the doctors is challenging because they communicate very differently.

Can you tell us more about the communication between nurses and doctors?

In terms of Accident and Emergency, I knew these doctors personally—so I knew how to go to them with a situation and talk about things concerning a patient.

With ICU, I don’t have a relationship with these doctors because I now start working there. So, I may go to a doctor with a situation and they will watch you like: ‘so you don’t know what to do?’ They will not say it out loud but that’s how it would seem from their expression.

But when I talked to another nurse she’d be like: ‘no that’s not what he means yuh know; that is his personality’.

You have to know their personality and you have to know what to ask them, when you’re asking them and how you’re asking them. Doctors will usually communicate [with nurses] during their rounds, when they come to see each patient—that is when you say what issues are going on with the patient.

Sometimes, you have a problem outside of the rounds that they are making. Because they’ll have other things to do, you have to try and explain to them properly why something has changed outside of the doctor’s rounds and why is it something that you couldn’t do.

Sometimes, you think there is an emergency but the doctor watches the monitor and says: ‘nothing is wrong with the patient’. So you have to do all you can and come up with your own plan.

Where I used to work because I know them and we had this rapport, they will come and see if anything’s actually wrong. But now, in ICU, I might hear: ‘this is not a big problem that you come with though’.

Maybe as I work there longer and get more experience, I will know which things to go to them with and how to operate on my own more.

How many doctors are assigned to the ICU?

There are usually five or six doctors assigned to the ICU.

Have there been any memorable or rewarding experiences you’d like to share?

Of course. There was one patient (a young man) who got shot, and his vital signs were declining. At one point, his pressure was 60/20, and his oxygen level was going down, but I believed in God for him to pull through.

They gave him medication to keep his body still at the time so he wouldn’t be able to move too much. I worked the evening with the patient, and the following morning, I was advised that he may crash, not to move him—he wasn’t doing good at all.

I prayed, and I miraculously saw his vital signs go up from 60/20. I saw the fight in the patient, too. I was amazed. He made a full recovery in a short time.

How are you able to balance work and family life?

When I get home, they don’t understand how I feel. Sometimes, they tell me I’m always tired. But there are days that are really tough, and I just need a quiet moment, and they don’t understand that.

I prayed and asked God to help me find a way. So sometimes I stay at work for 15 minutes extra just to clear my mind, and then I would go home to my family and be in a better mental space.

When I go to work, I leave what is going on at home. It was very hard at first, but I am balancing better now.

Do you feel fulfilled in your career?

I’m almost there. I would like to get more knowledge and experience. In the future, I would like to become a clinical instructor.

Any nuggets of advice for those who might want to enter the nursing field?

The first thing is it must be something that you love to do. If you know it’s what you want, just go for it. Keep pushing.

It’s not going to be easy; you will not meet every nurse being nice to you. There will be some teary moments, but if this is what you really want, trust God—it is going to work out for you. Keep your blinders up and keep focused.

See yourself as what you want to be. Don’t procrastinate, be disciplined. Don’t ever give up!