off to the floor you go

Back in the States, when I was a nurse in the Pediatric ICU, discharging a patient to the floor meant that they were well enough that they didn't need the specialized care in the ICU. We would take out all the unnecessary tubes and wires, pack up all their stuff, wheel them to their new room and hand off to the new nurse. It was always a good thing, going to the floor. It meant you were getting better.

Here, things are a little different. I discharged a patient, Donald, to the floor today. He was a little boy who had had surgery on the same day as his mama. Both had tumors removed, but Donald's was much smaller and his healing is almost finished. We took apart his chart and filled out his discharge papers, but that's where the similarities ended. We then proceeded to stick a note to the wall above his mama's bed, reminding the nurse taking care of his mama that he has some staples to be removed on Friday, please. We made up a mattress with sheets and pillows and blankets and we slid that mattress right under his mama's bed. Which is where he'll be staying until she's well enough to go home, too.

When I say he went to the floor, that's exactly what I mean.