Settling In

My working space.

After two to three days in the ICU, I became accustomed to answering phone calls. The ICU runs on a lot of these important calls. Phone calls usually mean someone on the unit had paged another department or a doctor needs a report on the patient he is monitoring from his nurse. Phone calls could also mean that a visitor needs me to buzz them in for a visit or a patient’s relative would like to speak to a nurse. Above all, it is my duty to get these calls to their respective owners.

My trip to the Blood Bank.

Answering phone calls was not the only thing I had been allowed to do. At one point, I was able to run to the blood bank to retrieve red blood platelets. I am given a slip of the checked item I am to retrieve and present it to a blood bank worker. There, they give me a pack of the order I needed from a refrigerator and carefully wrap, label, and place the packaged blood in a biological hazard bag for me to give to the nurse who had asked for it. The blood was to be used for a transfusion that took place later that day. The transfusion was successful and I believe the patient was discharged two days later.