Nurse or Patient?

This may be a post only nurses want to read.

There I was in my scrubs with my stethoscope, name badge and pockets stuffed full of supplies with patient name bands on my wrist. What the...? How did this happen? Read to find out...

So I clock in and I am ready to take on a new day. I quickly get the news I am assigned to float to the telemetry unit. Oh well, I had never had to float before. My supervisor said, Diana, I am so sorry! The charge nurse downstairs said he would be really nice to you- Great! The day was busy, but bearable. I was able to take my lunch on time and was actually caught up fairly quickly when I returned. I had a patient with a wound I was unable to assess in the morning because it had a dressing I was told I didn't need to change. The patient said it hadn't been changed for a long time. I looked back several days in her chart to find it was supposed to be cleansed and packed with Iodoform daily. C'mon people! Where was this in report? I was told by the night shift that the daughter did her dressing changes... Yeah right! Anyway, like a good nurse I ordered the supplies I needed and went in for the job. I was also told in report that this patient was on contact precautions for VRE and MRSA in her wound (nasty infections). This meant I had to wear a very attractive gown and gloves every time I entered the room. When I took off the old dressing I found a wound that was just over 1/4 inch in diameter and about 2 1/2 inches deep. I pulled out the long string of old Iodoform (a medicated string of gauze 1/4 inch wide you pack the wound with) and started to irrigate the wound. I looked closer to see what was inside and... SPLASH! My eyeball got a quick spritz of wound juice! Anyway, to make this long story a wee bit shorter, I had to #1 fill out all sorts of paperwork, #2 spend 3 hours of my shift in the ER getting my eye flushed out with a full liter of fluid (felt like a brain freeze in the eye!), #3 take care of my patients the rest of the day with a red eyeball and smeared mascara, #4 follow-up with occupational health today and get my blood drawn! I don't have time for these sort of things to happen. Don't ever ask to float me someplace else again!!!

Oh, a bit of relief. I called the supervisor on the floor before they started my eye flush to let her know I would still be a while. She said she had called the physician of the patient and got consents signed to do blood tests on her. She also found out that the patient does not have VRE and MRSA in her wound. She only had a history of VRE. Did I get report on the right patient this morning???