Good Day???

Thursday came and went like a giant blur. Although I hadn't gotten any sleep in the previous few nights due to sick kids, I drug my tired butt to the hospital, for what I knew was going to be another crappy day on the floor. As I suspected... 6 patients, 4 of which were discharged and to be leaving before 12. There was another pending discharge, leaving me with one patient. This is NOT the way you want to start your day as a Medical/Surgical/Orthopedic RN - this was the making of a train wreck. The kind of day that makes you walk your ass off, pass pills like you are handing out candy, chase your tail, run around like crazy person, no eating/drinking/peeing, headache creating terrible day. On top of knowing you have a huge discharge list and all it's paperwork BS, you know (and fear) an evenly amounted admission list was heading your way. ACK... just thinking about it... I HATE MANAGEMENT... douche bag, pieces of shit. "We don't have the budget to hire more nurses." Yet they are building more stupid shit and remodeling more ugly/old stuff at the hospital. Idiots... they wonder why we all want to quit. Anyway... as I watched the clock getting closer to noon, my first person left. My next two were waiting for the surgeon to show and the 4th was being a pain in the ass. "I'm not leaving today because I don't have a ride home!". I loved my two ladies in the middle. Post-op lap banding. They required nothing from me. Both very funny, sweet, happy - the kind of people we rarely see on the floor. I got lots of hugs from them when they left at 1:15. My last lady left at 2:30. Thank god! My questionable 5th ended up getting nuts so we had to give her Haldol and tie her to the bed = no discharge. Surprisingly, I only had one admission heading my way. I guess it was a quiet day in the ER. She rolled up around 4:30 - 25 yr old ACL repair. She was awesome. In all my time of being a RN my day has never ended like Thursday did... EARLY! I was 100% done with 4 discharges, one admission, charting, noting, etc by 5:45. What do you do for an hour at the hospital??? I surfed the web, read some emails, chatted with friends at work. We (the other 3 nurses) all had great days. We got lots of laughs & jokes in too! I work with some outstanding people, most of whom have an outrageously twisted sense of humor. What started out to be a shitty day ended up being one of my best ever. I only wish we had more days like that.
We'll see what happens this Thursday when I go back. I'll keep my fingers crossed.