Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. When the Intern is telling you he does not care when you call repeated times, you feel like you are failing your patient. When the Intern's Attending steps in 10 hours later and proves that the lowly 2LT RN was correct, you feel a brief moment of success, a moment of victory over the system...but you realize it took 10 hours. Ten hours in my book is still failing my patient. Close to the end of my shift the patient was finally taken care of and the Attending came to my floor to pull me into a empty room to discuss my actions that day. I was scared. But he was nothing but complimentary. He thanked me for fighting as hard as I did. He encouraged me to keep fighting for my patients and said that he wouldn't mind if I took his patients everytime they were admitted or transferred to my floor. A civilian nurse who I very much respect helped debrief me but I still took it home with me.
We fight everyday for our patients, and we often bring it home with us. How am I, rather how are we to last 20 years of patient care when we so often bring our work home with us?
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