So, fact is...not too much tends to be happening at 0300 in the morning in most hospitals. At least, that's the goal. Patients are sleeping, or at least contained in their beds. Nurses are watching, waiting, and staying awake. And the nights passes with the goal to end it as being "a good night"--> an uneventful one. So that's where I am now.
If you delve into the details of that setting on any night, though, the neuro floor tends to get fairly interesting. Let's take tonight. I'll start with the immediate surroundings. I've got guacamole, salsa, and a whole table of snacks behind me. We're having a mini-party at the nurse's station. What? Nights tend to get boring. "Summer of '69" is playing in the background. We turn up the music to stay awake. Depending on the group working, the music choices change. The Phillipino group likes 80s pop music fairly well, as I've observed. Isn't it weird people make phone calls to friends, family, etc. at this hour? Fairly common. Happening now. One of the travel nurses plans to run for mayor of Baltimore City in 2011. He has been campaigning to us for the past couple of nights. He's over 6 feet, Jamaican with dreadlocks, and is quite earnest in his campaign for the position in a mostly sane way. His wishes have been put in the limelight now that the current mayor, Sheila Dixon, appears to be a con-artist...or something.
Now, the patients. Currently, one is squealing like a pig and working on eating his hand. He keeps exclaiming between squeals, "That's good!" Down the hall, another patient keeps removing his mitt restraint, and hitting the call bell. Amusing for a few reasons: 1: If you have restraints, you're likely not with it. Thus, hitting your call bell after removing the restraint is quite lucky for us nurses. Now we know you're "free" and to put the restraint back. One patient's wife hits the call bell, diligently, every 2 hours requesting, "Mr. so-and-so needs to be turned." She then records your every action on her notepad the minute you step in the room. Does she sleep? How does she know when to hit the call bell for a turn?
And on and on and on...because, now, work happens.
