David has requested that I begin this post by telling you all about a paramedic that I worked with on the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit today. And I will, but I first have to reference my post from yesterday. If you haven't read it yet, please take the time to do so or you may be confused. Quick recap: paramedics are RNs first and need masters degrees to be paramedics. Get it? Got it? Good. Moving on.
So my clinical group was in the CICU today for our clinical experience, and it was the first time in my nursing experience that I felt at home in the hospital itself. The pumps and equipment are vastly different, but the vitals and basics are the same. The systolic/diastolic bp ranges are the same, the arterial wave forms are the same, and the ventilator settings are the same. Without even having to catch up too much with the nurses, I knew what was going on and I definitely realized how much I missed my unit at home. The Grady MICU truly is a family and I wish I could tell them about all of this as it goes. It breaks my heart to think about the idea that I may have to wait a few months until my arm heals before I will be allowed to go back to my unit. But even though I cannot be with my Grady Family, I am thrilled to have the chance to be in this unit in Budapest. A ton of the equipment is incredibly outdated and it consistently amazes me that we, in the USA, are as blessed as we are with medical supplies and personnel. These nurses unofficially have twice the responsibility and 5 times the patients. I mean that quite literally. One ICU nurse may have as many as 15 critical care patients in their care at any given time. On top of that, they also may no doctors on the floor for hours on end. I can't begin to explain how horrifying that thought is, and how much I applaud the nurses for choosing this profession and following through despite the poor wages, severe burn out, and constant lack of disrespect from the doctors.
So back to the paramedic. The paramedics seem to work as physician's assistants in the hospitals here. They are technically ranked above nurses on the units and can call the shots during codes and such when doctors aren't around. I promise I have a point here... So on the CICU, there were 2 nurses for 6 patients, and 1 or 2 paramedic students who were there doing clinicals. One of the students who spoke moderate english, was Norbert, aka Norbi. When he saw that we had identification in the form of name tags, he took a piece of medical tape, wrote his name on it, and stuck it on his chest, introducing himself as Norbert, "Like from Harry Potter!". I spent most of my clinicals talking to him, to explore the various differences in our cultures within the hospital and in the country in general. For example, he has never heard of a mosquito hawk, and that was a full 45 minutes of conversation about bugs and such in the USA vs Hungary. He tried really hard to communicate with us in English, which presented some difficulties, but overall went very well. He has a wonderful grasp of the english language and the vocabulary. I genuinely hope we get the chance to talk to him on Monday during our next clinical day.
As for my patients today, as much as I loved them, I hope that they are safely at home by Monday. One, was Patrick Stewart's doppleganger and he was the coolest patient I've met so far. I'm not 100% sure that he realized we didn't speak Hungarian, because he gave us his whole life story... in Hungarian. He seemed thrilled to have the interaction though, and was more than comfortable letting us listen to his heart and lungs. Our second patient was a Holocaust survivor. Yeah, I did just type that. She survived the holocaust. We found out because she had 1942 tattooed on her knuckles, which is apparently where they tattooed babies and children when they were taken (if they were not killed in the concentration camps).
I won't even delve further into my thoughts on that patient because I'm still trying to sort them out for myself, so I'll keep you posted on that.
I hope my bestie, Morgan Foster, enjoyed her birthday today and loved our birthday celebration at the New York Cafe (one of the most beautiful coffee shops in the world). Tomorrow is my free day, so this is the time when I must go to sleep so that I don't actually turn into the hulk.
Goodnight my loves!
Love always,
Constantly in awe
"Swag Bomb."- from David
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