Day 11

This morning I woke up and headed over to Piedmont. I arrived around 8 and clocked in then walked up stairs to 2 South. Once I got there I was immediately put to work by wiping down the some of the medical equipment. After that I sat at the desk for most of the day and answered the phone. Most of the calls to the nurses station were pretty routine. Many of the woman asked for towels or ice water but occasionally there are some different calls. One woman called in and just repeated "nurse nurse nurse nurse". Of course this freaked me out the sense of urgency in her voice definitely made me feel like she needed her nurse immediately. So I hung up and just told that to one of the nurses next to me. That nurse, although it wasn't her nurse, rushed in there. Then came out shortly after and said that the woman was in a lot of pains but that her pain killers weren't working. Her nurse went in there quickly afterwards and after she came out she informed us that the patient simply needed to pee. Apparently this woman hadn't peed since she had her baby yesterday afternoon which sounds incredible uncomfortable to me. After this episode I got up and went to the crib room. I restocked it again because every time a patient come in or out we need new supplies which is obvious. Once that was completely I went back to the desk and answer calls again. I started to talk to one of the nurses who was also a lactation specialist. She was super interesting because she became a lactation specialist before she was a registered nurse which is odd because normal it goes the other way around. She also told me that hospital only hire lactation specialist if they are registered nurses as well but it did not use to be like that. It used to not matter, you could be a lactation specialist but not a nurse and still get hired now you have to be a nurse which I found interesting. After the conversation with her, Ann, one of the nurses came and got me. She took me into the nursery to help fill up some bags with gauze which was cool because I got to see how the nurses worked with the babies in the nursery. Unfortunately due to restriction and safety concerns volunteers can no longer hold the babies but either way they are cute to look at. After finishing up in there they told me I was good to go for the day and would see me tomorrow.