Deep pockets

'What have I got in my pocket?'

                                                                                                               Bilbo Baggins  

While on shift the other day a number of things happened that ended up with the above statement being said by myself...

1. While the SN I was working with was with a patient they knocked out their venflon and started to bleed all over the bed.  I was with the patient in the next bed space when this happened and the SN asked me to run and grab some swabs for them to help stop the bleeding... My hand went into my pocket and pulled out a pack of sterile gauze swabs and tape and passed them to the SN.

2. The SN was putting up a bag of IV fluids and had forgotten to bring a flush with them and asked me if I could go and grab one for them... My hand went into my pocket and I pulled out a flush.

3. I was providing pressure relief for a patient with another CSW and they noticed that the patient had a small op-site dressing on their back that needed changing and said they would go and grab one from the treatment room... I got them to put their hand in my pocket and they pulled out a small op-site dressing.

4. I was helping a foundation yr1 Doctor who was cannulating a patient with dementia by talking to them to keep them calm when the Doctor dropped the bung from the cannula... I put my hand in my pocket and pulled out a bung.

5. I was chatting to one of the CSW's who were filling in a patients 'MUST' when they said that they were just going to get the BMI chart to work out what the patient BMI score was... I put my hand in my pocket and pulled out a BMI calculator disk.

6. The SN was filling in a patients 'Falls risk' care plan and was going through their drugs chart and was filling in the section for 'is the patient on 4 or more medications'. They ticked the box for 'yes'  when I chirped up and pointed out that it was talking about medication from the falls risk list. They looked at me, 'What list?'... I put my hand in my pocket and pulled out a folded up A4 piece of paper with a list of medications and handed it over.

This then resulted in the following conversation:

'Your pockets are like Mary Poppins handbag. What do you have in your pockets?'

'What have you got in your pockets!?!'

'My handover, my phone and my lip gloss.'

Ok... Everything you need to survive the day.'

I giggled and asked if I could borrow their lip gloss before emptying out my pockets...

'What have I got in my pockets? I have... a packet of sterile gauze swabs, a small op-site dressing, 2 x saline flush, 2 x IV bungs, tape, clinical skills pocket guide, drugs pocket guide, BMI calculator disk, RCN blood results, MUST height/BMI tape measure, falls risk drug list, antibiotics list, colorectal operations guide and my note book with wound tape measure, venepuncture guide, constructive writing guide and orthopaedic operations notes/pictures I've done.'

'Wow... that's a lot of things... you're like a REAL nurse! If we run out of things I will come to you 1st as its all in your pockets. hahaha.'

I like to think that most nurses carry the same amount of crap in their pockets as me.  Ive been in enough situations at work to know that you should hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.

Anyway it's time to go get dinner on the go so I will love you... and leave you :)