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Joe McFadden

Journal Entries
Journal December 16th
Hours worked: 5pm to 1:30am
I had an interesting experience at work today that requires a bit of a backstory. A big
thing in hospital units now is how to prevent patient falls, because a patients health and safety is
our number one priority. The ICU has introduced many initiatives such as hourly rounding by
nurses and proper lifting techniques in order to prevent patient falls, and we have been very
successful as it has been over one year since our last patient fall. Today we had a very heavy and
very weak old lady who wanted to get up into a recliner. So I and another coworker did our best
to accommodate her, but unfortunately she has been bedbound in the unit for so long prior to this
that she had become deconditioned and was no longer able to support her own weight. I and my
coworker were on either side of her supporting her, but I could feel her legs buckle so I
immediately positioned myself in front of her and basically had to do a front squat in order to
hold her up while my coworker positioned the recliner behind her and sat her down. Quick
thinking and proper lifting technique saved the day without either myself or the patient
sustaining injury, and the streak is kept alive! (As of January 5th we are at 391 days without a
fall).

Journal December 31st


Hours worked: 3pm-11:30pm

One of the problems the ICU has been facing lately is a negative attitude that has risen
amongst the nurses. This past year the ICU and the Cardiovascular Unit, which was responsible
for post-op care of open heart surgery patients, merged. This created some trepidation as people
had to take on new roles, ICU nurses had to learn how to manage open heart patients while CVU
nurses had to learn to handle ICU patients, personalities clashed, stress levels increased, and thus
the negative aura was born. The vast majority of the people I work with have the prototypical
type A personality, whereas I am very much a type B personality. Thanks to this I am very good
at staying even and calming people down when they become too amped up and Im able to create
just a little harmony where there was none before. Hopefully in this new year myself and others
can help the unit become a much happier place.

Journal January 4th


Hours worked: 3pm-11:30pm
In the 4 years Ive worked at the hospital I would say this was in the top 3 of my
busiest days. The hospital is very full and one of the downsides to working in the ICU is that no
matter how busy or full the unit may be we need to make room if there is someone who needs
our level of care. So throughout the day we had to move the sick out so that we could receive the
sicker. People were very stressed out and as I mentioned in my earlier entry I do my best to keep
everyone emotionally stable, but even I was having trouble keeping an even head today. In the
end we all survived and the patients survived too, hurray.

Journal January 8th

Hour worked: 12pm-8:30pm


This is not the hours I typically work but its very busy in the unit so they asked if I could come
in earlier. I was able to apply some of the things I have learned in school at work today, as we put
a bed-bound patient through some range of motion exercises in order to give him a bit of a
workout and to make sure he doesnt decondition as much. That being said it was incredibly busy
and Im glad to be home.

Journal January 9th


Hour worked: 3pm-11:30pm
Today was honestly the angriest Ive ever been in my four plus years of working at the hospital.
The unit was very busy, as it has been, and I found four of my coworkers sitting in the break
room just talking. These four have been known to be chatty as opposed to hard workers,
especially on the weekend, but this was the most flagrant case of laziness Ive seen and I felt
incredibly disrespected. I talked to my charge nurse and I plan to talk to my clinical manager
about this on Monday, because it was absolutely unacceptable.

Journal January 11th


Hours worked: 3pm-11:30pm
Today was interesting, I got to experience something that is inevitable when you work in the
health care field. We have a very seriously ill man in the unit and I was giving him a bath in his
bed. I wasnt moving him at all but I noticed that despite him being intubated his oxygen

saturation level was dropping into the 60s (not good). I alerted the nurse and we got the
respiratory therapist in and were able to bring his oxygen levels back up. The nurse practitioner
ordered a STAT chest X-ray which showed that his left lung had collapsed. A physician assistant
came in and inserted a chest tube which stopped him from crashing. I dont think Im to blame
here, he is very sick and this would have happened regardless of what I or anyone did, but it was
still an interesting experience. (This gentleman ended up passing away on Thursday the 14th).

Journal January 13th


Hours worked: 5pm-1:30am
Fortunately today was a very good, calm day for the unit. The past few weeks have been
absolutely hectic and at last there has been some stability. We had 10 patients in the unit and by
the end of the day we had those same 10 patients so there wasnt any movement which is good
for us. This has been a very welcome respite and hopefully everyone has been able to recharge
their batteries a bit because flu season is coming so things will very likely pick up and in a big
way.

Journal January 15th


Hours worked: 3pm-11:30pm
Today was rough for me and unfortunately I took it out on others. I was unhappy because on
Wednesday when checking my school schedule I saw that they had changed my schedule without
my permission nor informing me that they had made a change. They had moved me from Dr.

Bobs physics lecture to another professors. I went to the registrar to get switched back but they
told me they wouldnt unless they got permission from the professor who had made the changes.
So I came in to work very angry that people would make a big change like that without asking
me or telling me, and then I came in to work to find out that they were pulling me to the ICU
even though I had signed up to another unit. Because I was already in a bad mood this really set
me off, and unfortunately I was short with the charge nurse and my boss which they didnt
deserve, getting pulled is part of the job. An hour later after I had calmed down I apologized and
explained to the charge nurse why I had acted out, and Ill apologize to my boss the next time I
see her. I was wrong with how I acted, I should have been a professional but I let my emotions
control me. Ill do my best to make sure it doesnt happen again.

Journal January 22nd


Hours worked: 3pm-11:30pm
Today I received some difficult news as I and the rest of the unit discovered that one of our
coworkers had been let go for a HIPAA violation. I wont go into detail about what he did, but
this just reinforces how seriously patient confidentiality is taken in the health care field. It is
difficult to let him go, especially because he was very good at his job, but due to the nature of
what he did he had to go. It will make things more difficult for us but ultimately it was the right
decision.

Journal January 27th

Hours worked: 5pm-1:30am


Today was a very hard-working day for me because weve been so understaffed. Typically we
have three technicians on at once but due to recent events I was the only one scheduled for my
entire shift. It was difficult but we had a very good team on so we were able to get all of the work
done, and it just reinforced in my mind how important teamwork is in this field.

Journal January 28th


Hours worked: 5pm-1:30am
Today we had someone pass away in the unit. The event began when a nurse and technician were
performing patient care on the individual, and while they were turning him he cardiac arrested.
They were able to bring him back but he arrested again and ultimately passed away. The nurse
taking care of him took it hard and asked the same questions I asked when a patients lung
collapsed when I was taking care of him: am I at fault, could I have done something better, etc.
We all have to face questions like that, and hopefully learn something from experiences like
these.

February 4th, 2016


Hours worked: 5pm-1:30am
Today was interesting, and by interesting I mean very interesting. We had two visitors come in to
visit a patient, and the two visitors appeared to be intoxicated. They were stumbling around, had
slurred speech and stumbled on their words, and were at times confrontational. Other family

members had called ahead to warn us and told the nurse that this is simply how they were and
that they were not drunk, and as time wore on we began to realize that they really were just two
odd people. When it was time to leave I offered to take one down in a wheelchair because of her
difficulty walking, and along the way they told me all about chakras and how one was a shaman
and claimed to have the power of the healing touch. After standing at the entrance and having a
ten minute one sided conversation about spiritual energy I bid them adieu and walked back up to
the ICU. Its a funny story, but it highlights that in the health care field youre going to come in
contact with many different kinds of people with all sorts of backgrounds and ways of thinking. I
need to learn how to work with and for them to help bring about their best health.

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