Normally I’m pretty good at concentrating. I’ll sit and read entire books cover to cover given the opportunity. Most of the time I’m happy to read from page 1 to page n of a (research) paper without too much hastle. Good days, I can read several papers in a row. Magazines tend to annoy me because I finish them in minutes.
But at the moment my concentration span is that of a gnat with ADHD. Because I’m trying to study, ready for my interview (revise? learn? something) at St. Fred’s, but I feel like I have so much to learn. I’ve kind of got half way through the European Resus Council’s recommendations, and then lept wholesale to ‘Emergency Nursing made Incredibly Easy’ (which suffers when read here, because it’s very American, and this is the NHS, and doesn’t work that way). But I’ve revised my ABCDE (Airway, Breathing, Circulation, Disability, Exposure), I’ve got my 4H’s and 4Ts (four main causes of cardiac events: Hypoxia, Hypothermia, Hypovolemia, Hypokalemia (and other metabolic causes); Toxins, Tamponade (cardiac), Thrombosis and Tension pneumothorax) (damnit, couldn’t remember the last T) (from the ERC recommendations). I’m remembering how I used to assess patients coming into the ED in my training…
I’m trying to come up with good reasons for employing me, and good reasons for me wanting to work in the ED (“it’s fun!”…no? darn… I’ll work on that then). And all the time I’m feeling stressy as hell, and I can’t concentrate on any one task for more than about 30 seconds.
My all powerful lord and master has promised me the day off as Annual leave despite it only being a week away. Since I’m taking it as AL I’m not so much feeling the need to tell him about me going for an interview. It’s not a good time in Q-Ward, with a big (and frankly unjustified) complaint and lots of staff off sick; so me adding in the stress of ‘Hey, I’m going for an interview’ just seems a bit unfair. Of course, I’ll have to tell him if I get the job…
Yesterday was a nightmare on the ward, with the duty-matron telling our nurse in charge it was unacceptable for him to say we weren’t able to take patients (despite the fact we were running on very low numbers because we were meant to be closed, and were now in fact open) . In the end I admitted 7 patients (granted 1 of whom I rather skimped on the admission because he should be going home today) and was actually taking handover’s for patients while writing the admission on the previous one. I barely saw the patients I admitted, which thanks to the new SAP paperwork (Single assessment process) I didn’t have to worry about – why see patients when you can sit at the desk overwhelmed in notes?
The ward they’d come from was in complete chaos too, the handover’s I got being minimal and the notes with the patients bare of anything useful, and myself and the other staff nurse on walked out at the end of the day saying ‘this is how mistakes happen and people die’. 3 staff nurses, 2 health care assistants and 30 patients? Many of whom with conditions that we’re not that experienced in dealing with…
Still, what can I do? Just the best I can manage I guess.
