Unbelievably crappy week!
Posted: 04 Jul 2015, 05:44
THIS week has been the absolute s***s! Not only were we heavily scheduled for surgeries, but we've had next to NO staff! My usual partner-in-crime, Melissa, took a fall from a boat and injured her shoulder badly enough to call in sick for two nights in a row. Those of us remaining have been running our asses off, non-stop, all freaking week long. To make matters worse, we had a serious blow to staff morale when one of our patients (a reasonably "young" man of only 43), following spinal surgery, apparently threw a clot and coded on us, and we were NOT able to save him! His death has cast a pall over us which still hasn't lifted, three days after the fact. While it's true that there are is NO such thing as a surgery without risk, the fact that this guy had NO significant health history prior to his surgery made his death that much more jarring to all of us. Let this be a warning to all "surgery addicts" out there (and yes, in my three short years at this little "boutique" hospital which does "elective" surgeries only, I've seen more of such people than I care to count!) that your next surgery might very well be your last one! Surgery is NO FREAKING JOKE, people, no matter how the surgeons might try to minimize its risks in order that they might be able to rake in the $$$$! Let surgery be your LAST resort when it comes to resolving any health issues you might be having. It's painful, debilitating and downright DANGEROUS! Unless traumatic injury, health emergency or malignant disease renders it necessary (in which case, it can be life-saving, which MAKES it worth the risk!) or intractable pain is SEVERELY compromising one's quality of life, it should be avoided like the plague, and alternative methods of healing should be explored *stepping down from soapbox*.
The final *insult* to my week came when my "relief" charge nurse was significantly late for work this morning, and it wasn't the first time...GRRRRRRRR!!! This particular nurse has pulled this particular trick on AT LEAST SIX DIFFERENT OCCASIONS IN THE PAST YEAR that I'm personally aware of, and, for all I know, it could be more. It's always the same freaking story with him...he's almost ALWAYS between 10-15 minutes late on a regular basis but, on occasion, it happens that 15 minutes go by, and he's still not there (I ALWAYS give staff members at least 15 minutes past the start of their shift before I call them -- things can happen, like car trouble, kids being sick, accidents, etc. to make folks late), and, when one calls him, the call goes straight to his voicemail, just like it did this morning. Called him several times this morning with no response. Finally, in desperation, I started calling management staff, because I was wondering how the eff they were going to expect me to come in to work tonight (or should I say, last night since it's past midnight already?) if I couldn't go home and get SOME kind of sleep in between shifts! The manager on call told me that she'd be on her way in as soon as she could get herself ready (STILL frustrating, considering that she wasn't ready to leave and she lives a good hour away from the job!) While I was waiting for her to arrive, I continued to care for patients, got a.m. assessments done and medications passed, all the while cursing the so-called "nurse" responsible for my misery. FINALLY, he showed up...TWO AND ONE-HALF HOURS LATE! Not a phone call did I receive before he arrived to let me know that he'd gotten my multiple messages and was on his way, and not ONE SINGLE APOLOGY OR EXPLANATION did I receive from him once he arrived to finally begin his shift! As I said previously, this has happened at least six previous times that I know of, personally. Today makes the SEVENTH time, to my knowledge, that he was in excess of an hour late for the beginning of his shift, and for all I know, it could be more than that! What kills me about this is that if I or any OTHER nurse I know (besides him!) tried such stunts, we'd have been kicked to the curb by now! The ONLY thing which has managed to "save" what was left of my attitude tonight (this morning) is the fact that, since there was such a mass "exodus" of patients from the building, they had one nurse more on tonight's schedule than was needed, and, in consideration of the fact that I worked 14 and one-half hours the previous night, they offered me an unexpected "low-census" night off! I'm STILL steaming, though...again, GRRRRRRR!
The nurse I've bitched about in the previous paragraph has been complained about to management by other nursing staff members for many reasons: his unprofessionalism, his exploitation of our CNA staff, his poor patient care, his undependability, etc. I, too, have voiced my concerns (although I'm loath to throw ANY of my co-workers under the bus!), but to no avail. Because he also appears to be "friends" with two of the major nursing supervisors in the building (The Chief Nursing Officer and our Director of Patient Outcomes), our concerns have been blown off...and, when I mentioned to him this morning that he needed to be more careful regarding his attendance issues (you may be sure that I wasn't going to be stuck working fourteen and one-half hours when I should have worked twelve without commenting on that fact!), his only reply to me was: "I'm not worried about it because I'm untouchable." REALLY??!!?? "Untouchable??!!??" I suppose, in our hospital, not all nurses are created equal but, it appears, some nurses are MORE "equal" than others! I had honestly hoped that my previous job change would be my LAST one. I've been more than 30 years in the health professions, 21 of which have been as an RN, and I had hoped to retire from this facility, where working conditions are USUALLY excellent (there are ALWAYS exceptions to ANY job!), but I honestly don't believe that I can continue to work in a place where nursing management shows such blatant "favoritism" to someone so completely undeserving. Time for me (at the old age of 53) to start job-shopping again, it appears...*sigh*
The final *insult* to my week came when my "relief" charge nurse was significantly late for work this morning, and it wasn't the first time...GRRRRRRRR!!! This particular nurse has pulled this particular trick on AT LEAST SIX DIFFERENT OCCASIONS IN THE PAST YEAR that I'm personally aware of, and, for all I know, it could be more. It's always the same freaking story with him...he's almost ALWAYS between 10-15 minutes late on a regular basis but, on occasion, it happens that 15 minutes go by, and he's still not there (I ALWAYS give staff members at least 15 minutes past the start of their shift before I call them -- things can happen, like car trouble, kids being sick, accidents, etc. to make folks late), and, when one calls him, the call goes straight to his voicemail, just like it did this morning. Called him several times this morning with no response. Finally, in desperation, I started calling management staff, because I was wondering how the eff they were going to expect me to come in to work tonight (or should I say, last night since it's past midnight already?) if I couldn't go home and get SOME kind of sleep in between shifts! The manager on call told me that she'd be on her way in as soon as she could get herself ready (STILL frustrating, considering that she wasn't ready to leave and she lives a good hour away from the job!) While I was waiting for her to arrive, I continued to care for patients, got a.m. assessments done and medications passed, all the while cursing the so-called "nurse" responsible for my misery. FINALLY, he showed up...TWO AND ONE-HALF HOURS LATE! Not a phone call did I receive before he arrived to let me know that he'd gotten my multiple messages and was on his way, and not ONE SINGLE APOLOGY OR EXPLANATION did I receive from him once he arrived to finally begin his shift! As I said previously, this has happened at least six previous times that I know of, personally. Today makes the SEVENTH time, to my knowledge, that he was in excess of an hour late for the beginning of his shift, and for all I know, it could be more than that! What kills me about this is that if I or any OTHER nurse I know (besides him!) tried such stunts, we'd have been kicked to the curb by now! The ONLY thing which has managed to "save" what was left of my attitude tonight (this morning) is the fact that, since there was such a mass "exodus" of patients from the building, they had one nurse more on tonight's schedule than was needed, and, in consideration of the fact that I worked 14 and one-half hours the previous night, they offered me an unexpected "low-census" night off! I'm STILL steaming, though...again, GRRRRRRR!
The nurse I've bitched about in the previous paragraph has been complained about to management by other nursing staff members for many reasons: his unprofessionalism, his exploitation of our CNA staff, his poor patient care, his undependability, etc. I, too, have voiced my concerns (although I'm loath to throw ANY of my co-workers under the bus!), but to no avail. Because he also appears to be "friends" with two of the major nursing supervisors in the building (The Chief Nursing Officer and our Director of Patient Outcomes), our concerns have been blown off...and, when I mentioned to him this morning that he needed to be more careful regarding his attendance issues (you may be sure that I wasn't going to be stuck working fourteen and one-half hours when I should have worked twelve without commenting on that fact!), his only reply to me was: "I'm not worried about it because I'm untouchable." REALLY??!!?? "Untouchable??!!??" I suppose, in our hospital, not all nurses are created equal but, it appears, some nurses are MORE "equal" than others! I had honestly hoped that my previous job change would be my LAST one. I've been more than 30 years in the health professions, 21 of which have been as an RN, and I had hoped to retire from this facility, where working conditions are USUALLY excellent (there are ALWAYS exceptions to ANY job!), but I honestly don't believe that I can continue to work in a place where nursing management shows such blatant "favoritism" to someone so completely undeserving. Time for me (at the old age of 53) to start job-shopping again, it appears...*sigh*