ICU: Our acuities were high, and staffing was low. Our ICU, with 24 beds, was already full. The staffing situation for that night was so poor that instead of our RNs having a 2:1 patient-nurse ratio, we were forced into 3:1 assignments. Despite the cha…
I love two nurses. One of them is my son, and the other is someone very close to me. She’ll have her own article. My son has just finished his seventh 12-hour ICU shift. He’s wiped out, devastated, and shell-shocked. Let me introduce him to…
He was 82 years old when he came into our ER, writhing in excruciating abdominal pain. After an ultrasound and a subsequent CT scan, the devastating diagnosis was revealed—end stage pancreatic and liver cancer. Despite enduring a pain level of 10, he m…
There is a phenomenon sweeping across various medical circles on social media that is forcing people to address accusations from those who were not on the front lines of COVID at the beginning of the pandemic. Though I have refused to pay much attentio…
Calling all health care personnel: EMTs, paramedics, nurses, CNAs, respiratory therapists, police, firefighters. All of you. You’ve been cursed at, spat upon, hit, and scratched by fingernails. You never got that 30-minute break during those 12 l…
When I was first paged about Mr. P, I braced myself for the worst. He had already had three “code greys” called—the hospital code for aggressive behavior. When we met him on his hospital bed, he was bound by restraints on his wrists and ank…
When I was a medical student several years ago, I saw someone die in front of me for the first time. My classmate and I weren’t responsible for the patients; we only observed and made additional reports for our studies. The following day, we disc…
It was a calm and quiet night in the ICU during my rotation when suddenly, the piercing sound of a code blue alarm filled the air. An elderly female patient, 66 years old, had come in earlier with lung clots due to ovarian cancer. She was on the other …
As a doctor who has cared for countless critically ill patients, I cannot stress enough how important therapists are for patient recovery. Whether it’s occupational, physical, or speech therapists, these health care professionals play an integral…
As a doctor who has cared for countless critically ill patients, I cannot stress enough how important therapists are for patient recovery. Whether it’s occupational, physical, or speech therapists, these health care professionals play an integral…
