Wednesday, December 2, 2009

exercise @ work

The unit I work on (MICU) just moved to a brand spankin' new Critical Care Tower. The patient rooms are almost twice the size of the old ones. The floors are beautiful hardwood laminate as opposed to the out of date linoleum we had before. We have bariatric rooms with lifts in the ceilings to save our backs (we frequently have patients who are 500+ pounds). Our new beds (around $34K each) play soothing music and can translate simple yes/no questions in 6 or 7 different languages. Overall it is wonderful.
The only drawback is the size. We also have 10 extra rooms to add to the space of our already larger rooms. Out of curiosity, I wore a pedometer to work last week. (I didn't go out and buy one. My son was given one at school to promote physical fitness). I wasn't a staff nurse that night. I was the "Help All" nurse. It is exactly what it states. We assist staff nurses with admissions, procedures, and respond to emergencies in the rest of the hospital. That night I took over 12,000 steps.
What does that even mean? How many miles is 12,000 steps you ask? Well, I googled it. 2,000 steps is approximately 1 mile. So I walked at least 5 miles. WOW. Add on top of that all the lifting of patients, equipment, and dialysis bags....I guess that means I can have an extra donut on saturdays when our lovely MDs bring us treats :)