I survived my first week of night shift!

I completed my first week on the floor. The first night I worked, I oriented with a preceptor in the ICU. It was very similar to working at Parkwest, but the charting was a lot different. The patient care is very much the same, but it makes it challenging when you don't know where everything is and how to use all of the equipment. Thankfully, the monitors are exactly the same, but the IV pumps are completely different. It just makes it difficult when you are running around half the night trying to find something or find someone to ask. The other thing I thought was different was that nurses don't seem to have as much responsibility as I did at Parkwest. Techs take Vitals, give baths, take blood sugars, and empty foleys. At Parkwest we did most of this except we had a lot of help from techs when it came to baths. Also, at one point, my patient had a really high blood pressure. I asked my preceptor if we should call an MD. She said they would be around shortly. There is an MD on the ICU floor at all times. I couldn't believe it!
My second night, I oriented in the IMC...Intermediate Care. This was very similar to ICU but I had 3 patients instead of 2. In IMC, the max no. is 4 patients. This night was busy, but I didn't have any trouble. The only thing I wasn't used to was that the patients in IMC are a lot more mobile and talkative.
On my third night (my first night solo) I was in telemetry. I only had 2 patients to begin with but I transferred in one and admitted another before the night was through. The patients here are not as sick, but the amount of work is increased due to the number of patients. The most you can have in Tele is 5. By the end of my 3rd night, I was so exhausted, I could barely thing when I was giving report to the AM RN. She probably thought I was dumb.
One of the things that is different in this hospital that will take some getting used to is the pharmacy. I'm used to a pharmacy being open at all times. The pharmacy closes at midnight so if you get a new patient or you forget to call down for a drip before they are closed, it is more challenging to get it. One of the other things is that they used Kardex for their Medication Record. Meds are always taken off by a secretary onto the Kardex. That is weird to me. We also only have one secretary at night in the ENTIRE hospital. Something I really like that Parkwest didn't have is that we all have personal phones along with our pagers. Pagers are only used to page tele and monitor abnormalities. You can dial anyone directly instead of paging them including techs and secretaries.
My coworkers are nice and helpful, and I love the hospital. It's just going to be a matter of getting used to it all. Of course, by the time I do, it will be time to move on.