Fluff My Pillow

Excerpt One

On the men's surgical service my head nurse was Nellie Rzeczkowski. Nellie scared the hell out of me and many of my classmates. We later got to like her. Nellie was very strict about nursing care. The sheets had to be mitered at the comers or she would rip them out until I got it right. The draw sheets had to be pulled tight so as one can bounce a dime, the pillow had to have the open edge toward the door. What all this had to do with nursing care I could never understand except it was good discipline.

One evening I didn't get off duty until 2 a.m., my housemother was waiting up for me. I explained how busy I was on the department, which she accepted. The doors locked at midnight and I woke her up from a sound sleep. The next day the housemother contacted Nellie to let her know how late I was getting off duty. Nellie took me into the hall bathroom (the ward didn't have bathrooms) and handed me a box of Kleenex and gave me her famous speech - 'No one ever said that nursing is a bed of roses'. I cried, when I composed myself I went back to work.

After working the evening shift for several weeks, I was assigned to the night shift on Nellie's floor. She made the rules. All patients were awakened at five o'clock to wash their face and hands before breakfast. The 'guys' in this fifteen bed ward asked us just to wet their wash cloth and let them sleep. They promised no to tell, if Nellie found out we would be in big trouble.

A senior student was in charge at night and I (a -junior) were the only nurses for about thirty patients. We were kept busy giving the intramuscular Penicillin every three hours and charting. We had a supervisor for the entire hospital whom we had to call when we needed a narcotic.

One night about three o'clock in the morning I had a patient expire in the Ward. I gave the usual post-mortem care but he was too heavy to transfer to the gurney. The senior nurse wasn't much stronger than 1, so we put a screen around the bed so the other patients couldn't see what happened. While we were discussing how we would handle the situation, six of the patients jumped out of bed and offered to help lift, and we thought they were all asleep.

Excerpt Two

Everyday was an emergency situation. We had several near drowning patients, a laminectomy that bled, abdominal surgery that eviscerated. When you hear that plop, plop sound you will never forget it or those gray colored sausages plopping out of the incision.

At night you can hear everytime a patient turns or coughs. I walked over to the far end of the room after hearing someone fussing - the patient handed me her endotrach tube saying 'Nurse, I don't think I need this anymore'. Obviously she didn't.

During an evening report the nurse explained the male in bed #I was a prisoner from Florence State Penitentiary. He had a stab wound from a brawl at the prison. Chest tubes had been inserted during the day. She stated he was a convicted child rapist and a guard was sitting in the hallway. I started my shift by assessing all three of my patients and took vital signs. I asked the patient in bed #I what he did to land in prison. The answer I got was 'I was framed'. I didn't pursue the conversation any longer. As I walked over to my desk to do some documenting, I took a deep breath and said to myself 'What am I doing here?' It's two o'clock in the morning, I'm all alone with a convicted child rapist -this huge 250 lb. Mexican American, who speaks only broken English, has no body restraints. He can very easily pull out his chest tube or just disconnect it and high tall it out of here. Guess what! I insisted that the guard who was reading in the hallway change his position to the bedside. The patient was discharged several days later.

A patient was brought into the unit during the night with intestinal bleeding. She had abdominal surgery several days before but the bleeding wouldn't stop. She was an elderly lady, very coherent, but she was going into shock. The surgeon had me go to the bedside with him while he explained the situation to the patient. We got a No Code order. Keep the patient comfortable. The son arrived and he was agreeable. The doctor ordered 100 mg Demeter I V. for me to give the patient to keep her comfortable. This is a large dose for a small woman. I had never given that much Demeter I. V. It took me years to accept that it wasn't the Demeter that caused her death. I had so much guilt stored up about this situation. It wasn't until I talked with some nurses which I knew would understand and I got rid of the guilt.

One of my worst nightmares was when I had two codes in the same morning. Six o'clock in the a.m., surprise, I had a patient stop breathing. I called a Dr. May Day, everyone available helped me. We stabilized the patient, and when I looked across the room, my other patient was gasping. Of course all my help had left so I had to call another Dr. May Day at 6:45 a.m. Fortunately the Crash Cart was still in the room. We only had two Crash Carts in the hospital, one in E. R. and one in CCITT. We stabilized the second patient and I had to do all the documenting and cleaning up. It was nine o'clock when I left - and no overtime pay. There was a saying at the hospital - There is a little comer in heaven for nurses. I never knew if it was sincerity or sarcasm.

(136 pages)