by Arklahoma » August 18th, 2006, 5:39 pm
In my new role as Nursing Supervisor for my hospital, I'm required to attend all Code Blue's and Rapid Response Team's (Kind of like a pre-code event. Whenever a nurse thinks a patient is going downhill then they call a RR and we all show up and save the day). This is a smaller hospital, but it is three buildings and six floors to traverse. In the last couple of weeks, I've had many assault calls from our psych unit and rapid response teams. I've tried to run to get there but I just can't physically do it. I walk as fast as I can and am usually the last person to show. Anyway, last night, we had a code blue and I took off out of my office, down two hallways, up two flights of stairs, down two more hallways, and was the second one on the scene behind the ICU nurse. I even passed the pharmacist and the respiratory therapist en route, which was kind of shocking to me.
I am so proud of myself because I've never run a day in my life. Never even had the desire to, but now I do. By trade, I'm a cardio-thoracic ICU nurse where codes happen all the time; however, everyone is in the same room so you can get going pretty quickly. When I arrived in the room last night (probably 2 minutes after the code was called), everyone was just standing around doing nothing. I had to totally jump in and start chest compressions while telling everyone else what to do b/c these nurses have never even seen a code before (I learned after the event).
I'm seriously considering upping my calories past the 6/0 and beginning a strong cardio program, so that I can be in the best shape possible in order to serve my patients and my nurses. I'm so excited that I was able to jog/run (whatever it was) without becoming so winded that I was unable to direct the scene. This is truly a first in MY ENTIRE LIFE and I can't believe it!!!