Basic Nursing 1st Edition by Judith Wilkinson, Leslie Treas

Exercise 19

Suppose you are the charge nurse on a 30-bed surgical unit. In addition, you must assume care of three more patients because another nurse called in sick. It is a normal, busy day with seven postoperative patients and eight discharges. In addition, a patient went into cardiac arrhythmia and was transferred to the coronary care unit. Because the sick nurse was supposed to work a 12-hour shift and no replacement has been found, you are told you must stay and work 4 hours overtime. You had plans to have dinner with your spouse this evening because it is your anniversary. Now you will surely not be home before 8:00 p.m., and you will be exhausted.
• What would be the stressors for you in this situation?
• What thoughts and feelings would you have?
• What physical responses would you probably notice?
• What are some psychological responses that you would use to help you adapt and cope with this day?
• How would you probably react if the same thing were to happen on the following day?