My first 12 hour night shift of practicum was very eventful to say the least. First of all my preceptor (the nurse who I was assigned to work with) ended up being very funny, patient, and just awesome to work with so I am super thankful for that. From the beginning of the shift when my preceptor I was received report from the day shift nurse about out patients we knew it would be a long night.
One particular patient in room 42 was a middle aged woman who was in for kidney stones. She spent about 1/4 of the time actually in her room though. Instead of staying in her room like a normal patient she would come to the nurses station periodically making requests, leave the floor altogether to go smoke outside, or she would be moaning and wailing for everyone to hear from her bathroom. We offered her pain meds, sleeping meds, and anti-anxiety meds that she was scheduled to have and she refused. When I checked her blood glucose level (she was diabetic) and told her she needed to take her insulin she also refused. Instead of cooperating with her medical care she would just yell "I'm pissing blood and no one cares!" So from the getgo I knew she was out of her mind! Everytime my preceptor came back to the nurses station from dealing with her she would turn to me and say "She's crazy what am I gonna do with her!"
At 2 am 42 is not in her room and we figure that she was once again outside smoking against everyone's wishes. We got a call from the ER telling us otherwise. 42 changed out of her gown and into her clothes and went all the way down to the ER trying to get admitted again! The ER told us that she was claiming that we refused to GIVE her pain meds! My preceptor told security to bring her back up because she didn't have time to go fetch her. After awhile a 2 super old security guards escorted her back to our floor and she was cussing up a storm and yelled that she wanted a new doctor. We told her to go back to her room but she refused and requested AMA (against medical advice) papers to sign so that she could leave for good. So we let her leave and we were all quite happy to see her go.
At around 3 am we get yet another call from the police saying that they found her laying on a street outside of the hospital and that if she didn't move they would arrest her! Then at 6am we heard that she walked to another hospital trying to get admitted. The craziest thing about the situation was that she was scheduled to have a procedure that morning so if she had stayed for a few more hours on our floor she would have been seen by the doctor!
Anyway it was an entertaining first night and I'm glad that 42 wasn't readmitted to our floor because we definitely had enough of her. The other patients I took care of thankfully made up for her because they were pleasant and cooperative people. So you win some and lose some!
