Equipment and Eclipsys

Most of the frustration of working in this new hospital is learning how to use all of the equipment and apparatus. Everytime I go to do something on my own I have realized I need help, because it's different.

I went to spike my first IV fluids only to realize the plug to pull out of the bag was different. I had to go ask questions. I was afraid that if I pulled out that plug and it was the wrong plug then there would be a liter of fluid all over the floor. Priming the tubing was whole another challenge. The tubing is different and requires fliping a button half way down, flipping a chamber upside down, letting the chamber fill, then flipping the chamber back over. Nothing seems to be common sense.

While the nurse that I was following was busy doing another task I offered to help her in starting new IVs. Then while I was trying to start the IV noticed there wasn't a needle retracter. I blew the patient's vein once, then was able to start it the next time. I attempted to start another IV on another patient and blew the veins twice more in the process. This will take some practice getting used to the needles.

Even the oxygen tops are different than I have ever seen before. I've worked with eons of oxygen cannisters in multiple settings and have never seen them like these.

Above all of these technical issues of equipment was the 2 nights of paper charting I did. There was paper after paper. I have never seen so much charting, checking the charting for the past 24 hours, then checking it for the whole shift, then checking it again with report. This weekend the hospital will finally go to computer charting called Eclipsys. We spent 3 long days in front of computers learning to use this system. I took detailed notes and typed up a cheat sheet for all in my class to use. We'll see how it goes tomorrow night. It'll be frustrating taking the time to figure out everything until I can flip from screen to screen knowing where everything is.