The hospital that I was assigned to is called Lincoln Medical Center. It is a Trauma 1 and Stroke 1 center and has been designated a Covid-19 center, so a lot of the surrounding hospitals are sending their covid patients to Lincoln. Every floor has been converted into an ICU along with all the clinics throughout the hospital. Each room has a hole cut into so the IV tubing can run from the outside of the room into the room to the patient. This allows for the IV pumps and medications to be assessed and used from outside the room. Every time a patient is extubated there is an audible alarm that sounds throughout the hospital and everyone cheers. I only heard this one time in my first 12 hour shift. The patient care is given in teams. Each team has 6 patients. The head is the ICU nurse with a MEDSURG nurse 1 critical care tech and 1 respiratory therapist. The RT's are stretched very thin and are part of multiple teams, which makes managing vent patients very difficult.
Everyone was extremely nice and grateful for the help that has come. There were 70 Nurses in my orientation group. We were warned that the floor nurses are stressed and overworked so we shouldnt take anything personal. I will see how that goes tomorrow for my first real floor shift.
