For some it could have been the worst night imaginable.
Sleeping where you work.
Especially in a hospital.
But for Jodi Dill it turned into a pleasant evening of getting to know her co-workers better.
The snow this week heaped problems on just about everyone but when you are responsible for taking care of people there is nothing about snow – no matter how much – that can leave you stranded.
Dill and about 300 Greenville Hospital System employees spent Monday night in the hospital so there would be enough staff on duty Tuesday morning after fluffy snowfall became forbidding icepack.
Sandy Dees, a spokesperson for the hospital system, said employees slept in pre-op rooms, recovery areas and empty hospital rooms. Some dragged in air mattresses.
It was a time to dust off the planning manuals. Ambulances took some patients ready for discharge home and security officers drove employees to work.
“Patient care is a priority, and we appreciate our staff making the special effort to ensure patients receive the care they need,” said Erwin Stainback, senior administrator for perioperative and GI services at GMH.
Dill, a nursing supervisor in the Family Birthplace at Greenville Memorial Women’s Hospital (used to be just labor and delivery), lives in Greer – a 30-minute drive on back roads to the Memorial Medical Campus. She knew leaving home before daylight Monday – her shift starts at 7 a.m. – she wasn’t going to make it back that night. She packed a bag.
“Always as a nurse in the back of your mind you want to be prepared,” she said.
Others just decided to stay without provisions. So once their shift ended at 7 p.m. and they’d eaten and talked and figured out which rooms they were going to stay in there was an awful lot of swapping doing on.
“I’ve got an extra pair of socks.”
“I’ve got a tee-shirt.”
“I need soap.”
They talked some more and got into their pajamas.
“It felt funny walking around in pjs and getting snacks,” Dill said.
She said the nurses she works with are close, and the situation brought them closer as they had time to sit and share stories about their lives.
“It’s funny to see people out of their element,” she said. “What impressed me was the camaraderie of the nurses and how willing they were to stay.”
All the patients were nestled into rooms on one side of the sixth-floor unit while 10 day nurses and surgical technicians packed into rooms on the other side.
Dill and another nurse stayed in a labor and delivery room. Dill got the hospital bed, the other the sleeper sofa. They were tired. Sixteen babies were born on Monday – a bigger than normal number – as cold and snow clamped down on the region.
For Dill, a nurse for 10 years, Monday marked the first time she’d spent the night in the hospital. It gave her a new appreciation for what her patients go through.
“It’s unfamiliar,” she said. “A lot of the nurses who stayed gained empathy – being in a place that’s not home.”
Her assessment of the accommodations was they were quite comfy. She slept well. Of course, she didn’t have nurses waking her up to check her vitals. And she got to sleep later than usual. All she had to do was take a shower and walk out onto the floor.
The rest was a good thing, too.
Tuesday brought birthdays for nine young-uns, four of whom were delivered by Caesarian section.
Tags: hospital, Lyn Riddle, snowstorm
