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Working on the Civic Campus trauma unit brings excitement, variety and challenge, said RN Skye Milford.

The people who come through our doors at The Ottawa Hospital could be anyone – a downed skier, a fallen elderly woman, a gunshot victim or, with the weather warming up, a motorcyclist.

In the trauma unit, every case is unique. Our patients have serious and often complex injuries – they’re well enough to be out of the Intensive Care Unit, but not ready for a regular unit.

At the start of each day, we do our bedside rounds, assess our patients and respond to any changes or abnormalities we see. We give patients their morning medicines and make sure they have everything they need.

We try to get our morning care done early, because there could be a trauma code called on the overhead paging system at any time. We could have new patients transferred from surgery, emergency, or the ICU; we could receive a direct admission from another hospital, or even a patient from an air ambulance.

I used to work on a surgical floor and moved to the trauma step-down unit in July 2014. I love the excitement, variety and challenge that come with being a trauma nurse – we really never know what the day will bring.

Beyond the excitement, trauma care is rewarding. As sad as it can be to see people come through the unit with serious injuries, it’s really rewarding to see them recover and go to rehab. People come back to visit and say hi, and when they walk through the door, it’s so moving to see them healthy and strong again.

By Skye Milford, RN

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