I don't believe I have ever told you about some of the very unique things we deal with being a floating hospital ship. I have just had a couple "this doesn't happen at home moments" lately. Some of it is nursing related others, just about life.
Ensure, you know that delicious nutritional supplement given to the elderly. Here we use Ensure on all of our adult tube feelings. What do you do when you run out of those little cans of Ensure? Make your own of course. You just need a liter of whole milk, peanut butter, fiber powder, multivitamin and sugar! Throw it in a blender and tada your very own nutritional supplement! What do you do when you run out of smooth peanut butter? In a blonde moment (or maybe a moment of old age) I tried crunchy, it was a horrible disaster. I just marched up the stairs to the galley and borrowed a strainer. Use the crunchy peanut butter and then strain out the "crunch"!
IV poles? What a luxury! No, no we just use magnet hooks and put them on our metal ceiling. Actually I much prefer this to the heavy cumbersome IV poles of home.
Our caregivers (parent, older sibling, aunt, grandmother) sleeps on a mattress beneath the patient's bed. I've been here quite a while and I just recently realized that parents at home would have a heart attack if ever told them to sleep on the floor!
We are a living Petri dish. If one of us is sick, all of us are. We don't only work together but we socialize and sleep in the same rooms together. I now know how hard it is to be a nurse (charge nurse at that) and have absolutely no voice. That was definitely interesting! Please pray for our healing and protection for the patients. Pretty much every nurse on my ward has a head cold and we don't want to pass it on to the patients. I guess that is what we get for cuddling with cute snotty nose babies!
This is an absolutely amazing experience that I will always remember. In no other hospital ever do you work, live and really get to know the doctors, nurses, and all other staff you work with. I love it!
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