Grateful for my co-worker

Clocked in at 3 p.m. as I have done since I have started working, nothing seemed out of the ordinary as I walked to the nurse's station from the time clock, however once I reached this cubby hole of a nurse's station, I could tell that it was not going to be an easy night. There were several people at the station, all trying to tie up their odds and ends before leaving for the weekend. It was too congested for me, but I had to sit and bear it. The off going nurse could not even give me report because of all the interruptions. She instructed me that a re-admit was coming with a LOT of new orders...paperwork that I did not know how to do. By the time she was finished giving me report it was 4:30. My day was ruined, med pass was certainly already behind and to top it off, I was informed the facility physician was making his rounds today. I was definitely panicked by this point, I did not know what to do first, and since she was officially off duty, I had all cell phones, walkie talkies on my person, and of course all the calls started. I was really sweating it when she told me not to worry, she would stay over and take care of this new admit. Boy was I relieved! Now all I had to do was start med pass, however I felt sorry for her because this patient had too many complex orders that this facility did not deal with. I was informed that it was the "friday evening push off". I asked what that was and she told me that is when any and everybody (healthcare professional) will try and send a patient anywhere just to get them out of their hair and let someone else deal with the problem of the patient because of it being Friday people (healthcare professionals) wanted to hurry and go home from their jobs. So our facility was the victim of the "fepo" because no one wanted to deal with this patient/resident. Anyway, as I knew when the day started, I was behind all night long, which in turn caused resident's to be irate because their meds were late, but it could have been much worse had it not been for my co-worker which I was eternally grateful, because she definitely did not have to stay and help me. If my co-worker were in trouble, I ask myself would I have stayed on a Friday an extra 2 and 1/2 hrs? I would like to think that I would but I do not really know, that remains to be seen, I would have to be in the position for me to answer truthfully. Anyway, until the next blog...