From a low of about 20 patients last Tuesday night to a full capacity of 36 patients by Saturday, our mental health unit has experienced another one of those famine to feast situations. The patient count was so low last Tuesday that I was sent to the medical unit again. In contrast to what happened last time I was there, I got lucky because the night was very uneventful. The patient I was watching slept all night. It was so quiet that I was able to whip out my netbook to write a rough draft for a blog entry, then discovered an unsecured router in the neighborhood. Not only was I able to write a final draft, I was also able to upload it that same night.
After having three days off, I was still expecting our patient numbers to be low. To my surprise when I got to work, our unit was full. All the regular nursing staff were able to stay on their home unit. Our patient numbers have been fluctuating so much lately and there seems to be no trend anymore. Maybe it has something to do with the economy, or perhaps governmental budget cuts. I don’t know. As long as I’m working, I can’t complain about inconsistent trends in the number of patients.
I don’t know what it’s going to be like this week with Christmas coming up. I hope the patients who don’t have anywhere else to go for the holidays will decide to stay in the hospital and keep our numbers up.
Back to Main Page: http://noeldlp.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment