Teammates. Partners. Colleagues.

Only 30 minutes into my shift and the nurse and I are deep in conversation. About what you may ask? Foley catheter's. Some may find this a boring subject, but when you work where I work, its never the play-by-play of how to do it. These conversations come jam-packed with side stories; bladders that have been ruptured, injured or just plain funny faces from patients during a totally uncomfortable process.

It's another slow night at my friendly neighborhood job site and so I'm taking the time to read up on blogs, read my textbooks and whine about the boss man and their crazy ideas. (Trust me, if your boss thought you should stay awake for 40 some-odd hours you would bitch too.) While doing all of this and practicing patient care, the nurse and I continue a long conversation that should last all night.

The conversation jumps and suddenly we are on the topic of partners. How odd. I think to myself as I listen to her talk about past hospitals she has worked in. This was the last topic on the Handover Blog... Ironic. However, as I have come to learn to do in this job I just roll with it. The nurse I am working with and I haven't always gotten along well. We are from the same mold, she and I. Both stubborn, outspoken, smart, and fiery. We discussed how we hated each other when I began working with her, and then how over time we quickly became close colleagues.

When I first came to this unit I quickly became close friends with one nurse, and disliked the other, because the other nurse was very vocal about her opinions and me being the new girl took ALL of it to heart. (The nurse with the conspiracy theories is the one who I befriended first. There's only two night nurses that I work with) However, it didn't take long to realize why, it was because we were both strangers to each other, and that scared us both. Working one-on-one with somebody is a tough thing to do for 12 hours a day, 3 days a week; which is why if you like your partner, (or colleague) its a blessing unlike any other.

In EMT school my teacher always emphasized on how we would walk away from that class with lifelong friends. I rolled my eyes and sighed every time I heard it, however, those kids, the EMT's in my life are the people who I have loved, hated, befriended, disliked, and after so long everything has fallen into place that we are all still amazing friends. My partner from that class, for example was assigned to me, and I was scared to see where things went. I was a rough-neck hillbilly from Crazy Hick High School, and she came from the prissy rich upper East side. At first I laughed at her and begged my teacher for the other hillbilly student in hopes that between practicing CPR I could use trucks and mudding as conversations. But my request was denied and my partner stayed the 90 lb. brunette. It only took days before we became best friends, and still to this day are great friends. Some of the other kids in my class that we shared rooms with, shared good and bad days with, we have all stayed in touch... I never thought that a couple of kids saving lives for fun could turn into such an amazing bond.


My nurse, knowing my dream of becoming a paramedic, asks me about some of the decisions I have made regarding schooling, work and my personal life. We talk about it for awhile and she looks to me. "You're learning so much more here, doing shifts like these than a textbook paramedic, so even if your gonna be doing what you do for a little while longer, that's okay. It'll make you better in the long run."

I looked to her. "Yeah," I agree, "But do you think I'll learn paramedic skills in a hospital?"

"Absolutely." She replies, grabbing a chart. "You'll learn it all the slow way, perfect it then be able to whip it outta nowhere when it comes time for you to preform in an emergent situation. Hell, the nurses station can be your little ambulance bay!" We both laugh and continue on with our shift. But it made me think about how lucky I am to have such a great team here, and such great night shift 'partners.' When you think about it, its not just working nights. Its working when its just us, and no one else. In our hospital, if shit hits the fan, then we are forced to dial 911, not the ER, which can be scary.

But another big thing happened tonight. When shift change is over we are supposed to go introduce ourselves to the patients by giving them our name and title. Generally if the other is busy with another task we do it for the other, so I would write my name and title on the board, and then the nurses. Every night, I see Dani, CNA (or HCA) written on the board, but tonight, I saw something different. Dani, EMT-B