New staff

I was taking team for the patients away from the nursing station today. SEN L was my runner today. We started with 9 patients under us, followed by 1 discharge, and 3 new admissions.

The adjoining ward wasn't open, thus SSN F and SN M were around. SN M was taking team for the patients near the nursing station. SSN F helped around for both teams. SN RB, a new employee freshly graduated from my local nursing school, was assigned to learn from me today. Although I had to spend some time showing SN RB some of the stuff, she had been a great help to me this morning. Add to that SSN F stepped-up to help me for stuff like NG aspirate, IV flushing, and patient's admission where SEN L wasn't willing. Even SN M covered me on a doctor's round while I was taping my handover report and HCA M, who was SN M's runner this morning, assisted to answer call bells. I am really lucky to have their help. Yet, despite the luxury of all the support I got, somehow we were still very busy this morning on my side.

Rumours are that the staff from the adjoining ward will be returned to their original wards when the adjoining ward closes permanently. I will miss them. Despite their laments to me about my ward, they have been personally supportive of me at work and voluntarily help me when they see that I'm busy.

SEN L was grouchy as usual. Her attitude is beginning to affect the quality of her work. I noticed a quite few temperature taken where the patients' temperature is recorded as 36.0 degrees Centigrade. Since she is a locally trained EN, I expect that she knows that this is not an acceptable temperature for children who are not warming up post-OT. I will observe her further before deciding on what is to be done to address the issue. I need to assess if this is a once in a blue moon event, or she does this slip-shot standards only when assisting me, or if it becomes a trend for her.