These Are a Few of My Favorite Things...

I'm not wild about memes. Not even sure how to pronounce the word. But another nurse asked me to do this. Another L&D nurse. So I'll do it. Because even though I've never met labornurse in person, I know I can trust her. I know what she does everyday at work and I read her blog.

Four things that I can't live without as a nurse and one thing that I covet:

1) My nurse peeps. I know that the nurses I work with will come to my aid in an emergency, will have my back in a crisis, and will think through patient care with me when I'm just not sure what to do next. And they're good company on those slow nights when we sit around the nurses' station and tell each other stories.

2) The good will of the patient care techs and surgical techs. On our unit, if you have a low-risk delivery, then the first person to evaluate your baby is a PCT. I rely on this evaluation. I trust these women to let me know what's up with that newborn. Is the baby fine? Do I need the team? I hope the techs that I work with realize how much I respect them.

3) Our awesome Unit Secretaries. These women, the two I mainly work with, P and V, go above and beyond. I'm always finding myself in the position of asking them to order lab work and discovering that they have anticipated that need and already done it.

4) My instinct. I also need my nursing education and skill, but I'm starting to realize how important my instinct is. A few months ago, I was in a fairly routine delivery. Nothing about the mom's history or the baby's strip would require that I call the NICU team for delivery. But I just had this feeling that I should. I didn't. That baby came out limp as a dishcloth. Luckily, I had another nurse in the room and the baby ended up being just FINE. But I should have had the team. And on some level I knew that.

The one thing I covet beyond all else:

POCKETS!!

We are required to wear hospital laundered scrubs because we go in and out of the OR. For some reason, the scrubs we are provided with don't all have pockets. About one shirt in 30 has one pocket. One in 50 has two. NURSES NEED POCKETS! So we always have to wear the jackets (for the pockets) even if we are menopausal and sweating like little piggies all the time. Unfortunately, our linen department only stocks our locker room with size S and XXXL size jackets. Shockingly, most of us are somewhere in between.

I'm not tagging anyone specifically. If you are a nurse and you feel like doing this meme, please leave a comment so my 7 or 8 readers will know where to go next!