A Day in the Life of a Nurse in the Hospital Ward

A Day in the Life of a Nurse in the Hospital Ward

Becoming a nurse takes a lot of hard work, smarts, and determination. There are years of school to complete, clinicals, rotations, and plenty of all-night study sessions. You are told all about the job expectations throughout school, but once you become a nurse, the reality sets in. Wondering what a day in the life of a nurse looks like? Keep reading!

Early Morning Routine

For a nurse working the day shift, alarm clocks usually start ringing by 5:15 am. You have to roll over, slip on your scrubs that you’ll likely lay out the night before for convenience and then slip on your lovely compression socks that keep you from getting spider and varicose veins. After a quick breakfast, some frustration finding parking six blocks away from the hospital, and a piping cup of coffee, you’ll arrive on the scene.

Beginning Moments

After arriving at the hospital you will exchange some light banter with your other nursing colleagues and then take report. Once the report is finished, you’ll check in on all your patients and ensure they aren’t in an emergent need of something. Then you begin making the rounds, distributing meds, and conducting any necessary blood draws for the ordered lab work. As soon as you’re done with one patient and about to leave, someone’s alarm goes off and you’re forced to sprint into their room to address whatever emergency has arisen. Before you can even finish, someone else’s alarm might be ringing, and finally after getting everything under control for all of your patients you can stop and take a breath. You’ll then head to the nurse station to document everything that occurred and then visit each patient before breaking for lunch.

Afternoon Schedule

After lunch, it’s time to start releasing patients. You assess the doctor’s orders and begin processing patients to be released from the hospital. If you’re not doing it fast enough, you’ll hear about it from patients. In the meantime, you are also getting new patients as others are being discharged so you’ll need to check on them. As you enter into the second half of your 12—sometimes 14 hour—shift, you’ll be making more rounds, addressing emergencies, documenting incidents on the computers, and arguing with patients about the administration of their pain meds. Overall, it’s a very stressful day.

Want a new routine? Contact HEDIS Nurses Today.

If you are tired of the double shifts, late nights, and stressful situations, contact HEDIS Nurses today. At HEDIS Nurses, we connect qualified nurses with health plan representatives needing assistance with their HEDIS projects and tasks. We offer flexible schedules, steady work, and the ability to avoid the dreaded double shifts. We are currently hiring nurses to join our quality team and if you think you might be a good candidate, simply submit your application at HEDIS Nurses. It’s a simple and easy hiring practice and you will have access to constant projects and work from home capabilities. To learn more, contact us today at (877) 328-2343 or info@datafied.com!