I've had better days.

So today was a success and a failure both. A success because our patient survived his surgery and is currently recovering in the ICU. It was a failure because every step along the way we have been fighting with nursing staff. The administration wants us here, but the charge nurse of the ICU clearly does not want us to be here. I will state again that we were asked to come here to educate the hospital on open heart surgeries and heart valve replacements.
Every thing that I have done this week this charge nurse has disagreed with me. I try to explain things but the language barrier makes it difficult even with a translator. Tonight she did not like how our ventilator was working so instead of working with me to come to an agreement, she took another SICK patient off a ventilator so she could use it on the open heart surgery patient. When I left the ICU tonight, that other patient was not doing well off the ventilator. By doing this she gained control over the ventilator. She discussed nothing about a ventilator change with me or my team. She put the patient on settings that research has shown to be inappropriate. It is so frustrating because we are trying to help her but she has this complex that she is right. In no way are we saying that what she does is wrong, because it is not, but we just want to show her a better ways to do things. Safer ways, more effective ways and ways that are more comfortable for the patient. I won't get into how horrible today was for me, because it was pretty bad. Unless things are changed, and nursing and administration decide together that they want help, I can honestly say that I will be spending the rest of this trip helping people who want help at the pediatric hospital.
Highlights of my day included the amazing views of the volcano's this morning and that I got an arterial line in our patient to measure blood pressure during surgery that the anesthesia doctor and resident couldn't get. They called me in as a last ditch effort before they took more invasive measure, I don't think anyone expected me to get it. Off to bed so I can get up early so I can not teach nurses who don't want help.