Monday, July 12, 2010

Weekend Work Trip

I am back at work after a tiring weekend work trip. Not the best time for a work trip obviously, but I actually wanted to squeeze one in before I am banned from the friendly skies for being too pregnant.

I flew south on Thursday to West Virginia, met up with a couple co-workers, and drove to Ashland, Kentucky. We were greeted outside of our hotel by two guys drinking beer from a cooler. The next day, I was up at 4:30 a.m. (3:30 a.m. Central) to get to the hospital for a 6-6 shift. I was assigned to the Labor & Delivery, NICU, Nursery, and Mother/Baby units. They had just "gone live" on some new parts of our software, and I was there to help and call in to the "Command Center" if we ran into problems.

Some nurses and doctors were a little grouchy with me if they thought the software made their jobs slower or more difficult. Most people were friendly, and I learned a lot. I got to see a lot of just-born babies, which never gets old and made me so excited to see my own new baby in three months.

By the end of that 12-hour shift, my pelvis was throbbing, and I craved my king-sized hotel bed. The next day was mercifully nine hours long, and I added the Heart & Vascular Surgery and Step Down Units to my rotation. The cardiologists there were unexcited with doing electronic charting. I certainly felt for them as they waded through dozens of prescriptions while doing Medication Reconciliation. I could not believe how many diagnoses and drugs some of those patients have! Craziness.

At 3 p.m., we were back in the car on our way to catch a plane. It was a quick trip, utterly exhausting, but very educational.

Sunday I was back with my boys and poopy diapers, spilled juice, and fights over toy tractors.

--MM

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