Nurses Week

Happy Nurses Week!

I know I'm not the only one who looks forward to this week. We groan because we have to do another poster board. But in exchange for that, the hospital gives us some swag. This year was the cheapest gift of them all. It was a black eco-friendly re-usable grocery bag. At least they fed us cookies, ice cream, and breakfast.

None of this makes the job any easier though, only slightly appreciated for a week.
Let me vent: I picked a medical oncology unit to work in because I wanted to avoid psych, maternity, and pediatrics. But recently, I feel like I've been working in all those departments at the same time. I've seen more younger patients. (Naturally, as I grow older, there will be more patients younger than me.) I've encountered more bipolar patients, not to mention patients whose mental status are affected by their disease. There's not enough compensation from Nurses Week when someone curses you out, spits at you, and chews out their restraints. It's not a psychiatric floor, so we can't call the kind of code where security officers show up and someone gives Haldol, Ativan, and Benadryl to the patient. We've had new mothers as patients, too. Post-partum depression and cancer combined? I described the unit to my supervisor as "brutal." She said, "We prefer to call it challenging."

Background: National Nurses Week is celebrated annually from May 6, also known as National Nurses Day, through May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing.