Night shift and Patients' Passing

If any of you follow me here on the bloggity or the 'gram you know this semester I was plagued with 108 hours of night shift.  Ok maybe plagued is a little bit of a strong word considering they weren't nearly as bad as I had expected. Yeah your sleep schedule is more like a series of naps and the hour drive home in the morning can be brutal but night shift is like an alternative universe when everyone else is asleep.  You try to convince your patients to sleep too but then wake them up every few hours for medications and blood draws.  Whatever patients, we try to cluster care as best as possible but you also need these interventions to get better.  Either way I stand on the other side triumphant and say I will never be working another unpaid night shift.  Woohoo!  From here on out if I am up all in the hospital I am getting a paycheck for it.

Last unpaid night turn

Unfortunately this last night turn involved a patient death.  The patient was CMO (comfort measures only) so it wasn't a surprise and no code was run but it still is a patient dying rather than getting better. I pray and hope that it is never normal or easy to lose a patient.  I hope they always shake me up a little and make me pray. Because these patients we take care of and hands we hold aren't just medical record numbers but real people with souls that the Lord is passionately in love with. Souls that in those last moments need everyone praying and guiding their souls to the heavenly gates.  St. Catherine of Sienna, patroness of nurses, intercede for all nurses that we make be exceptional nurses.  St. Joseph, patron of happy deaths, intercede that each and everyone of us with a heart full of faith can rejoice and praise the Creator with all the angels and saints for all of eternity.