on call

Hey everyone!
So I only got a few hours of sleep after being on call and having to wake up at 6 for online PBL, but here goes the night! After supper we had a couple calls which, as I mentioned, were dealt with and resolved well. Then, a child called the nurse on call line and told us we had to come to the health centre because someone had a seizure. We jumped in the truck and drove down to find a child and adult huddled on the steps. We brought them in to the emerg room (which has a bed, oxygen, IV pole, etc) and checked the girl over. She was stable but very tired and kept dozing off. Then the RCMP officer came in to warn us he was bringing in another person, so we quickly contacted our second for backup (there are always two nurses on call here, one gets the calls - this is first on call- and the other has to be available within 15 minutes to come and help if needed). She came in and helped with the basics: inserting an IV, taking a urine sample, and helping with the head to toe and vitals monitoring. As my nurse was phoning for a doctors consult (because the nurses here can give many drugs without a doctor but there is once group of medications that needs a verbal order, like the anticonvulsant we gave). Because we were unable to determine what had caused the seizure, which is not just something that should happen in an average young teenager without a cause like a head injury, toxin, etc, the doctor approved a medevac to Yellowknife. This means we call the medevac company and get them to come, which usually takes just over an hour. As we were monitoring the patient and getting the paperwork ready, the patients mum went home to pack. On the medevacs, children and those who are medically unstable are able to have one escort go with them. Luckily, she stayed stable and continued to improve on her alertness (although she was still incredibly sleepy). I drove out with the second on call to pick up the medevac nurse (and saw the most stunning 1:30am pseudo-sunset of my life!) and bring her back to the HC. We gave report and she took over the patient and went back in the truck with mum and girl to take off in the plane. It takes about an hour and a half to get to Stanton Territorial in Yellowknife. After cleaning up the emerg room and once again checking the lights and windows were all good for the night, we came home and crashed, waiting for the next phone call to come in.
see you soon,
kirsten in kugluktuk