An even better night... for only the second time in ten years, we were on emergency bypass. This means that the ambulance people take patients destined for critical care/cardiac care to the other hospital.
Yeaterday I said that the ICU beds would be filled up... well, they were, but with medical patients, not trauma. We ran out of beds and we ran out of nurses to take new patients.
So... I was left with not much to do except house patients. I did do a few patients from the ED, but not many... maybe 25% of the normal. It was really nice.
This is a very short-term thing, however... the situation is re-evaluated every eight hours. Then things will get back to normal.
The other time that I remember that we were on bypass was when one of our ED nurses died, and the other hospital volunteered to take all critical patients. I never did quite understand that... it wasn't the day of the funeral, but the day after he died.
Anyway, shortly after 01:00 I went into the cafeteria from the smoking area. It's easy for anyone in the cafe to see people coming from smoking, since smokers have to traverse a long glassed-in atrium to get to the area.
One on the ED nurses saw me come in and said snidely, "Been out doing that nasty habit outside, haven't you?"
I replied, "No, I haven't been outside masturbating."
She was rather stunned, and a few minutes later she came up with her comeback, "I meant your *other* nasty habit!"
But she was way too late, so it was lame. But she did try, gotta give her that.
Anyways, off to bed I am. Two more nights.