🏥Day in a Day or Night Shift as a Nurse. Part 2

Part 1 here

Hour 2 – [Time to get to business, the nitty gritty of the shift truly begins].
By now I've walked to each patient room, introduced myself and asked if they need me to bring anything when I come to assess them. I make sure to review each patient chart for tasks, medications, and whatever else need to be completed.
Then - when I decide who I'm seeing first - it's always my sickest or most unstable patient then the better ones (though still sick) follow. I look to see if there is an antibiotic or something like seizure meds to give.

I'm getting vital signs at this point - listening to heart, lungs, and belly sounds. I ask "silly questions" to make sure my patients who can respond, are still with it. Meaning they are neurologically okay, I look at pupils, how they are responding, feel pulses, look at IV sites and make sure to be prepared. Is there an ambu-bag (valve mask for a code) in the room in case something happens, does this person have the right identifiers and if needed, a bed or chair alarm on for safety? No falls are happening on my watch.

Hour 3 – [Time is still scooting along] and I'm on my feet making my way to my other patients. My work phone has already rung a four more times since getting report.

This time it's a family member calling in about their family member who they are speaking with on a cell phone. I'm being called to be told that the patient needs a private room - that they are being mistreated though I've been nothing but kind and gone above and beyond to accommodate their complaints.
Mind you, this is the most stable patient of my bunch of four. Little do they know I have a patient gasping for air, asking me to remind them how to breathe. I take time to ask a coworker if they need any help, as I see them drowning too.