Firstly, it's very hot in my apartment so I am writing this topless.
Secondly, my department employs roughly 200 staff members. That's just RN's, CNA's (MA's), and unit secretaries (PSS or PSN's, UST's or whatever the fuck they call themselves this week...) That's not counting the dozens of MD's, med students, interns, residents just for the ER, as well as the dozens of MD's, residents, med students, interns for all the different departments. THen count radiology, registration, ultrasound, people that just wander around the ER, and you have a couple of hundred people a night in one confined area.
Guess how many employee bathrooms this area (which we will refer to as the Emergency Department) has?
7?
10?
42?
ha ha!
2.
TWO bathrooms for employees to use. ALL employees.
That's part of the contribution to one-or-two pee nights.
Out of all of those people, someone is generally always going to be hogging one of the 2 bathrooms, usually taking a very prolonged, very odiferous shit.
One bathroom is located directly inside our breakroom/kitchen area, and has the sound-proofness of, say, nothing. You can hear every squeak, drop, and piddle. It's embarassing to use.
so that leaves the other one, which is on the other side of that wall, which is equally as soundproof.
Anyway---that's not necessarily the brunt of this discussion, although it is frustrating. Especially when *I* am the one who finally FINALLY! gets to get to the toilet. oh! thank heavens...
not so fast, Ratched....you have some roadblocks to bathroom using.
1) is the bathroom functional? Often times there will be water spraying from the pipe that goes from toilet to wall. That's a hoot to walk into, especially when the floor has at least 2 inches of standing water in there, and your co-workers were of course not kind enough to put a SIGN ON THE DOOR OR CALL ENGINEERING. fuckers.
2) Is the bathroom...in usable condition? Has the slob before you had the courtesy to flush their 18 inch terlet snake? Perhaps the triage slob who wears the same scrubs, with the same stains, for 3 weeks at a time pissed on the seat again. Is there a large puddle of piss on the floor? Has the bathroom been recently frequented by whoever it is that powders their entire body (??) and leaves 2 inches of baby powder on the toilet seat (????) and on the floor, and the sink
3) Are there adequate supplies in the bathroom? Has housekeeping taken the time from their busy scheudle of napping and hiding behind carts to supply the bathroom with more than 14 squares of toilet paper (this is the real reason of the rant....follow below)? Is there soap? Paper towels? If you work at my hospital, probably not.
----
So, if you can't tell, I tend to get frustrated easily and am annoyed by most aspects of the universe. I have always been perplexed by the toilet paper that this hospital uses because it's extremely impractical. It comes on a roll the size of a tractor-trailer tire, and you can only pull off one very small square at a time (square measurement approximatley 1 pixel x 1 pixel).
So god forbid you actually drank more than 2 ounces of fluid and pee like a normal fucking human being and need more than one small square to get yourself nice and tidy---you're going to be pulling..one...square...at...a...time. Which is really impractical because I don't need a 9 inch thick peice of ass paper to clean with. I'd like a smooth flowing contigious set of 6, maybe 7 squares, perhaps enough to wrap around my hand glove-style.
But that's impossible. Because you're allowed one square at a time.
maybe we're supposed to quilt them together?
At any rate, I've been stewing about this since 2008. So tonight I asked one of the few housekeepers that speaka da good englich why the toilet paper was so impractical
Her answer "because it cost too much money to use the other kind"
huh? The rolls cost more?
"no. because people use it more. They use more toilet paper, so we replace it more often. So now they get the one with the little square so you can't pull off too much at a time"
WTF
They've gotten rid of my COLA pay increase. They've decreased the yearly pay increase. They've increased the % I pay for benefits, and decreased the amount they contribute to my retirement.
and now they're going after the toilet paper??
is there no end to this budgetary maddness?
I bet the CEO has free flowing, multi-layer ass canvas.
I'm so annoyed! Partially because this whole time (well, some of the time) I thought *I* was using the paper wrong. Maybe I should pull it down insead of out. Maybe out instead of down. Back instead of to the front.
NO! All these years of self doubt and insecurity, and the problem was never mine to begin with.
I am filled with anger, and pee.
Thankfully now I"m home, where I can wipe my ass with an entire ROLL IF I SO CHOOSE TO DO SO.
what nazi's.
----
On that note, I bid you adieu, auf weiderzein, and goodnight. And I leave you with a favourite song of mine,
A Gorilla Driving A Pickup Truck.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvIhzUXmz2k
Jim, I've been driving tractor trailer for years
Yeah it's true! I seen him, green Ram
Gorilla driving a pickup trick
70 on the speedometer, 16 gears
driving for Seven Centinium Mayflower
Peterbilt trollin, I'm sweatin'
I'm about to vomit on the highway
I seen the rearview mirror drivin towards Texas my way
him chewin bananas wearing a bandana
a speed chase, a truck running 200 k's
loaded down with produce, diesel gas with juice
I gassed up...he put his mask up
running over reindeers
head on with a moose
racin' the train, runnin next to the caboose
big load behind me
I'm lonely. I'm on my CB Radio talking to ghosts
"Gorilla's following me...gorilla's behind me"
I'm looking for a truck stop there's nothing in sight
trying to get up the road with all my might.
I'm looking at the side angle
hoping my wheels don't tangle
I opened up a can...I reached back into my sleeper
and grabbed a can of Rango
I was moving fast
He got up in front...the gorilla looked at me and passed
He was on my ass!
I looked at my tank, my tank was on "E"
Runnin up hill I got slow, my gas got empty
I had enough fuel to duel
he's trying to pass me!
Lookin in the left mirror...
lookin in the right mirror...
I won't even make an error
He's changing left...
He's changing right....
I cut him off on the side
He's throwing bananas under my wheels
I'm sliding going down those Texas hills
"Gorilla's looking at me
Driving behind me...."
Friday, July 29, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Perks of the job
I have been one to bitch about my union representation because, frankly, they are sometimes more in favour of management than they are the workers. But they're pretty good (better than my previous union representation) and I get paid relatively well (less than other workers at other hospitals, but I'm not another worker at another hospital, so I'm okay with that), and get nice benes.
Today I had to take a conscious sedation class from 8am-12pm, then go back and work tonight from 7pm-7am. To say that I was less than stoked at this scheduling event would be an understatement. However, thanks to collective barganing, because there is less than a 9 hour break between class and working, I am eligible for double time for the first 4 hours, and time and a half for the next 8 tonight.
If I make $38 an hour....38 x 2 = 76 x 4 = 304 + ((38 x 1.5)*8) = 760
Normally I'd just make about 456 a night (that makes me feel like Paris Hilton to say I make $450 a night...gosh!)...sweet!
~~~
So another perk---after class today my co-workers and I were walking about the building and in that building are the wet and dry anatomy and simulation labs for the medical students. We asked for a tour of the wet lab (you should have heard the squeels of glee from myself and my fellow RN's at the idea of being able to see CADAVERS! oooh). While there weren't any actual cadavers, I did get to see a severed head in a bucket. Neat.
~~~~
Side note:
convo between myself and med student
Me: ooh neat! I've never seen a dead body!
Him: You've never seen a dead body?
Me: well I've seen a dead body, but like fresh dead. Not dead dead
Him: never?
Me: well, Okay I guess I've seen dead dead, but not cadaver dead.
Him: Is there a difference:
Me: I dunno. You tell me
Him: There really isn't a difference
Me: Then why are they only called cadavers when you play with them, but they're dead dead when I deal with them
Him: I dunno. You tell me
Me: Oooh neat! I've never seen a cadaver!
~~~~
Today I had to take a conscious sedation class from 8am-12pm, then go back and work tonight from 7pm-7am. To say that I was less than stoked at this scheduling event would be an understatement. However, thanks to collective barganing, because there is less than a 9 hour break between class and working, I am eligible for double time for the first 4 hours, and time and a half for the next 8 tonight.
If I make $38 an hour....38 x 2 = 76 x 4 = 304 + ((38 x 1.5)*8) = 760
Normally I'd just make about 456 a night (that makes me feel like Paris Hilton to say I make $450 a night...gosh!)...sweet!
~~~
So another perk---after class today my co-workers and I were walking about the building and in that building are the wet and dry anatomy and simulation labs for the medical students. We asked for a tour of the wet lab (you should have heard the squeels of glee from myself and my fellow RN's at the idea of being able to see CADAVERS! oooh). While there weren't any actual cadavers, I did get to see a severed head in a bucket. Neat.
~~~~
Side note:
convo between myself and med student
Me: ooh neat! I've never seen a dead body!
Him: You've never seen a dead body?
Me: well I've seen a dead body, but like fresh dead. Not dead dead
Him: never?
Me: well, Okay I guess I've seen dead dead, but not cadaver dead.
Him: Is there a difference:
Me: I dunno. You tell me
Him: There really isn't a difference
Me: Then why are they only called cadavers when you play with them, but they're dead dead when I deal with them
Him: I dunno. You tell me
Me: Oooh neat! I've never seen a cadaver!
~~~~
Monday, July 25, 2011
observation
there comes a point when you have to put down the chips and soda. that time should hopefully come before you develop fat rolls on your ear lobes
also....
anyone who says 'once you've seen one, you've seen them all' has obviously never put a foley catheter in a homeless prostitute. :shudder:
also....
anyone who says 'once you've seen one, you've seen them all' has obviously never put a foley catheter in a homeless prostitute. :shudder:
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Quick Realities pt 2
Okay, now I can at least be more coherent.
...So nurses cost the hospital a lot of money. But they can't run the hospital without nurses. They try, but they can't.
So they need to cut $$ somewhere....they can't cut nurses, and if the nurses are unionized (as most are in my state), they can't really do pay cuts. So how can a hospital still be operational, but cut operating costs at the same time?
They get rid of the ancillary staff.
At my hospital, we have CNA's (Certified Nursing Assitants), HA's (Hospital Assitants), MA's (Medical Assitants). The HA's are pretty much CNA's. The MA's are CNA's with phlebotomy training, and they're only used in the ER.
The CNA's were phased out for HA's. HA's have less training than CNA's and can't do things like take blood sugar. So now the RN's do blood sugars. No big deal...except that you're doing 3+ blood sugars on your patients, every day, at precise times of the day that occur at exactly the same time that you're supposed to be doing other things.
They are getting ready to downgrade the HA's even more, and take away their ability to take vital signs. Currently, all the HA"s do is vitals, and turns. Now they're just going to do turning patients every 2 hours. The RN will have to do the every 4 hour (or more frequently if needed) vital signs, the AC/HS blood sugars, the EKG's....
The goal of this, of course, is to get to a point where managment can say "you know, why are we hiring HA's and paying them $17 an hour to do q 2 hour turns? We should just get rid of those HA's. The nurses seem to manage fine without them."
So, down the road, they are going to eliminate the HA's, like they did with the CNA's, and the LPN's (what archaic notions..LPN...where do they even work these days? Not the hospitals).
The hospital I work for is already talking about getting rid of the transporters...they are HA's or CNA"s that transport the patients from the ER to the floors, from the floor to Xray, etc.
So who is going to transport the patients?
The nurse. the nurse will transport the patients from here to there.
At the same time s/he has 5+ other patients.
So who will watch those patients while the RN does the transporting?
ANOTHER nurse, who has their own group of 5+ patients.
So you'll have a nurse who is watching 10+ patients for an indeterminate amount of time. S/he will be responsible for all the vitals, the medications, the general wellbeing of those patients while the other RN is away.
It's madness.
it's unsafe.
And yet we continue to work through it. Work in it.
not because of, in spite of.
Already they are short-staffing the HA's and MA's.There aren't enough to go around. So people don't get turned (uh oh! Medicare doesn't pay for pressure ulcers that develop in the hospital). So people fall out of bed (whoops! Sorry aunt mary got a broken hip, we didn't have anyone to answer her call light). People piss and shit on themselves and sit in it for hours. Call lights go unanswered....
And upon each discharge, we give patients a "Patient Satisfaction Survey"...how were we at answering the call light, at answering your questions, at treating you like a person?
Options range from "excellent" to "poor". We only get credit if the answer is 'Excellent'. Not "most of the time" or "pretty good". Only EXCELLENT counts. Everything else = poor (why they don't just give the patients the option of "Excellent" and "Poor", I'll never know)
So of course customers, er, patient satisfaction is waaaaaaaay down. Like in the 40-50% area
who gets the blame?
CEO's, for cutting the budget (but not their salaries)?
Management, for not hiring or replacing missing workers?
Decision Makers for slowly chipping away the tasks that can be performed by each group?
no
The nurses get the blame. We need to be faster, quicker, more polite, more on top of it.
We need to have more arms than Shiva
We need to shape shift and be a CNA, a babysitter, a councelor, a nurse, a doctor, a pharmacist.
We need to be able to be in 7 rooms at once, passing meds, giving CPR, calling report, tucking someone in, and helping someone to the bathroom all at the same time.
We need to work 13 hours a day without peeing, without eating, without sitting.
It's all our fault. We are just imperfect. The lack of "excellent" votes by patients means that we are too idle. That we are undedicated. That we don't care.
~~~~~~~~
Idle behaviour is the bane of management.
Don't ever let them see you sitting. Even if you're charting. Even if you're looking up labs. You can't sit. And you can't talk to co-workers. God forbid they catch you on a break. Even if you're allowed to have one. Even if they told you to take one. You can't do it. They give you that look. The gasface. The i'm going to make a mental note of this "break taking" for your next review, missy. I'm going to make a mental note of this for sure.
And you're so exhausted, but you have to tough through it. You can't sit, you can't eat. You can't have drinks at the nurses station (JHACO SAYS NO!) So we're dehydrated, full of pee, needing to eat, but we can't. Our legs ache and our backs scream out. But we have to plow through it, and work harder, and longer, and 3 of your co-workers called out this morining, and you know you can't leave your team like that, so you stay for 16 hours. And you still get the gasface when you try to take a break. Or sit down.
~~~~~
Why do we do it?
I don't know. But we do. And if we didn't, there would be more of a health care crisis in the US than there is now. And there's a big one now.
Remind me one day to tell you about 8 hour waits in the waiting room, and 45 people in the waiting room, and ambulances lined up in the bay, and people in the hallway on ventilators, and taking care of 8 critically ill patients at a time...
...So nurses cost the hospital a lot of money. But they can't run the hospital without nurses. They try, but they can't.
So they need to cut $$ somewhere....they can't cut nurses, and if the nurses are unionized (as most are in my state), they can't really do pay cuts. So how can a hospital still be operational, but cut operating costs at the same time?
They get rid of the ancillary staff.
At my hospital, we have CNA's (Certified Nursing Assitants), HA's (Hospital Assitants), MA's (Medical Assitants). The HA's are pretty much CNA's. The MA's are CNA's with phlebotomy training, and they're only used in the ER.
The CNA's were phased out for HA's. HA's have less training than CNA's and can't do things like take blood sugar. So now the RN's do blood sugars. No big deal...except that you're doing 3+ blood sugars on your patients, every day, at precise times of the day that occur at exactly the same time that you're supposed to be doing other things.
They are getting ready to downgrade the HA's even more, and take away their ability to take vital signs. Currently, all the HA"s do is vitals, and turns. Now they're just going to do turning patients every 2 hours. The RN will have to do the every 4 hour (or more frequently if needed) vital signs, the AC/HS blood sugars, the EKG's....
The goal of this, of course, is to get to a point where managment can say "you know, why are we hiring HA's and paying them $17 an hour to do q 2 hour turns? We should just get rid of those HA's. The nurses seem to manage fine without them."
So, down the road, they are going to eliminate the HA's, like they did with the CNA's, and the LPN's (what archaic notions..LPN...where do they even work these days? Not the hospitals).
The hospital I work for is already talking about getting rid of the transporters...they are HA's or CNA"s that transport the patients from the ER to the floors, from the floor to Xray, etc.
So who is going to transport the patients?
The nurse. the nurse will transport the patients from here to there.
At the same time s/he has 5+ other patients.
So who will watch those patients while the RN does the transporting?
ANOTHER nurse, who has their own group of 5+ patients.
So you'll have a nurse who is watching 10+ patients for an indeterminate amount of time. S/he will be responsible for all the vitals, the medications, the general wellbeing of those patients while the other RN is away.
It's madness.
it's unsafe.
And yet we continue to work through it. Work in it.
not because of, in spite of.
Already they are short-staffing the HA's and MA's.There aren't enough to go around. So people don't get turned (uh oh! Medicare doesn't pay for pressure ulcers that develop in the hospital). So people fall out of bed (whoops! Sorry aunt mary got a broken hip, we didn't have anyone to answer her call light). People piss and shit on themselves and sit in it for hours. Call lights go unanswered....
And upon each discharge, we give patients a "Patient Satisfaction Survey"...how were we at answering the call light, at answering your questions, at treating you like a person?
Options range from "excellent" to "poor". We only get credit if the answer is 'Excellent'. Not "most of the time" or "pretty good". Only EXCELLENT counts. Everything else = poor (why they don't just give the patients the option of "Excellent" and "Poor", I'll never know)
So of course customers, er, patient satisfaction is waaaaaaaay down. Like in the 40-50% area
who gets the blame?
CEO's, for cutting the budget (but not their salaries)?
Management, for not hiring or replacing missing workers?
Decision Makers for slowly chipping away the tasks that can be performed by each group?
no
The nurses get the blame. We need to be faster, quicker, more polite, more on top of it.
We need to have more arms than Shiva
We need to shape shift and be a CNA, a babysitter, a councelor, a nurse, a doctor, a pharmacist.
We need to be able to be in 7 rooms at once, passing meds, giving CPR, calling report, tucking someone in, and helping someone to the bathroom all at the same time.
We need to work 13 hours a day without peeing, without eating, without sitting.
It's all our fault. We are just imperfect. The lack of "excellent" votes by patients means that we are too idle. That we are undedicated. That we don't care.
~~~~~~~~
Idle behaviour is the bane of management.
Don't ever let them see you sitting. Even if you're charting. Even if you're looking up labs. You can't sit. And you can't talk to co-workers. God forbid they catch you on a break. Even if you're allowed to have one. Even if they told you to take one. You can't do it. They give you that look. The gasface. The i'm going to make a mental note of this "break taking" for your next review, missy. I'm going to make a mental note of this for sure.
And you're so exhausted, but you have to tough through it. You can't sit, you can't eat. You can't have drinks at the nurses station (JHACO SAYS NO!) So we're dehydrated, full of pee, needing to eat, but we can't. Our legs ache and our backs scream out. But we have to plow through it, and work harder, and longer, and 3 of your co-workers called out this morining, and you know you can't leave your team like that, so you stay for 16 hours. And you still get the gasface when you try to take a break. Or sit down.
~~~~~
Why do we do it?
I don't know. But we do. And if we didn't, there would be more of a health care crisis in the US than there is now. And there's a big one now.
Remind me one day to tell you about 8 hour waits in the waiting room, and 45 people in the waiting room, and ambulances lined up in the bay, and people in the hallway on ventilators, and taking care of 8 critically ill patients at a time...
Some quick realities before bed
So I guess the purpose of this blog (for the time being, anyways) is to educate people to the realities of healthcare in the United States (hint: it sucks).
And it doesn't necessarily suck because of the practitioners...it sucks because of the limitations the practitioners find themselves in.
Like my rant about last night...can't pee, no break for 10 hours...that's normal. That's regular. Ask a nurse "when do you take your lunch?" and the most common response you will get is "what's lunch?"
I can only speak for hospitals because that is the only setting I have worked in as a healthcare professional. And I can only speak of Acute and Critical Care and Emergency, because those are the only settings I have worked on (aside from occasional floating to Medical/Surgical floors).
Hospitals are tragically, dangerously understaffed. Understaffed to a degree that most people would be shocked to know about. And when I get patient's familes who see how hard we run, and how much we run, and how much we do, they are all in shock, and in awe, and I constantly hear "wow, you guys really run your tails off!" or "wow, how can you do it?"
I don't know how we do it. I really don't.
I don't know *why* we do it.
The returns are, at best, mediocre. I get a wonderful rate of pay considering that I have a 2 year degree and little professional prospects prior to becoming a nurse. I was on a fast track to dead-end office and sales jobs, and would probably never make more than $35,000 a year (before taxes) for the rest of my life.
So I will tell you that my first reason for being a nurse is financial. I got great return on my educational investment. My pay has gone up $15 in the last 5 years, and will continue to go up for the next 20, at least.
But I also do enjoy what I do. I am a curmudgeon, and I hate most people, but I get some sense of satisfaction from my job. I do enjoy being around patients. I enjoy doing the "nursy" things that we are required to do. I enjoy the comeraderie. I enjoy being able to use my sense of black and dark humour without being ostracized.
But we put up with a lot. We are torn in 50 directions at once. We have little, if any, ancillary staff. We are pushed to the breaking point EVERY. SINGLE. SHIFT and yet every night we come back for more, and know to expect it to be as horrible as it was last night, and not as horrible as it will be tomorrow night.
~~~~
It is my core belief that there should be no profit in the delivery of healthcare and medical treatment. None.
I am a socialist. I believe that there are certain things that every person should be secure in: secure in home, secure in food, secure in health, secure in job, secure in security that if any of those (home, food, health, job) were to be lost that they would be taken care of at a basic level by their government. It is my belief that we prosper as a nation when we're all healthy, when we're all employed, when we're all earning income, when we're all well fed, when we all have secure housing.
but I digress
~~~~~
However, health care IS a profit-driven business. And it is a business. In my hospital, you're a patient. In others, you're a customer. :vomit:
And because profit is above all else, hospials have to cut costs somewhere.
Nurses cost the hospital more than anything else. We have the audacity to expect to get paid a decent wage given our education, experience, knowledge. We have the audacity to expect certain conditions for work (patient loads, help, etc).
.,,,to be continued when I wake up....
And it doesn't necessarily suck because of the practitioners...it sucks because of the limitations the practitioners find themselves in.
Like my rant about last night...can't pee, no break for 10 hours...that's normal. That's regular. Ask a nurse "when do you take your lunch?" and the most common response you will get is "what's lunch?"
I can only speak for hospitals because that is the only setting I have worked in as a healthcare professional. And I can only speak of Acute and Critical Care and Emergency, because those are the only settings I have worked on (aside from occasional floating to Medical/Surgical floors).
Hospitals are tragically, dangerously understaffed. Understaffed to a degree that most people would be shocked to know about. And when I get patient's familes who see how hard we run, and how much we run, and how much we do, they are all in shock, and in awe, and I constantly hear "wow, you guys really run your tails off!" or "wow, how can you do it?"
I don't know how we do it. I really don't.
I don't know *why* we do it.
The returns are, at best, mediocre. I get a wonderful rate of pay considering that I have a 2 year degree and little professional prospects prior to becoming a nurse. I was on a fast track to dead-end office and sales jobs, and would probably never make more than $35,000 a year (before taxes) for the rest of my life.
So I will tell you that my first reason for being a nurse is financial. I got great return on my educational investment. My pay has gone up $15 in the last 5 years, and will continue to go up for the next 20, at least.
But I also do enjoy what I do. I am a curmudgeon, and I hate most people, but I get some sense of satisfaction from my job. I do enjoy being around patients. I enjoy doing the "nursy" things that we are required to do. I enjoy the comeraderie. I enjoy being able to use my sense of black and dark humour without being ostracized.
But we put up with a lot. We are torn in 50 directions at once. We have little, if any, ancillary staff. We are pushed to the breaking point EVERY. SINGLE. SHIFT and yet every night we come back for more, and know to expect it to be as horrible as it was last night, and not as horrible as it will be tomorrow night.
~~~~
It is my core belief that there should be no profit in the delivery of healthcare and medical treatment. None.
I am a socialist. I believe that there are certain things that every person should be secure in: secure in home, secure in food, secure in health, secure in job, secure in security that if any of those (home, food, health, job) were to be lost that they would be taken care of at a basic level by their government. It is my belief that we prosper as a nation when we're all healthy, when we're all employed, when we're all earning income, when we're all well fed, when we all have secure housing.
but I digress
~~~~~
However, health care IS a profit-driven business. And it is a business. In my hospital, you're a patient. In others, you're a customer. :vomit:
And because profit is above all else, hospials have to cut costs somewhere.
Nurses cost the hospital more than anything else. We have the audacity to expect to get paid a decent wage given our education, experience, knowledge. We have the audacity to expect certain conditions for work (patient loads, help, etc).
.,,,to be continued when I wake up....
one pee night vs two pee night
tonight is definitely a one pee night. that means that in 12 hours (13 if you count coming in early & leaving late), I was able to pee one time. rather generous, dont you think?
so I get an email prior to work tonight that the hospital is on lockdown. that means no one in, no one out. multiple news vans outside as I walk up...30 cop cars. had to show my badge and go through the metal detector just to get into my own department.
the reason was a gang shooting with 10+ victims, all in my ER. super!
so I getto work (I was trauma float tonight...I'll explain all this later) so I had my fill of trashy south-county residents with their badly spelled tattoos and meth mouthed baby mama's. they were all gone by 2am.....
....only to be replaced with 4+ different gang related shooting victim. this happened in one of our fine casinos, again located in one of the southern counties whic has a high population of people with badly spelled tattoos and meth mouthed baby mamas...
so it's 5am...I've been here for 10.5 hours and am just getting my lunch. of course it's too late to eat the fabulous tilipia I made for dinner...I'm starving, but I'll be all bloated and fatty when I get home and try to sleep if I ate that shit now.
so legally I'm supposed to get 30 min lunch and 2 15 min breaks for my 12 hr shift. I'm lucky if I get 1 15. lunch is a fleeting fancy and I better not think of peeing j less every base is covered. if I'm missing off the floor, there will be hell to pay.
and now, my generous 30 minute lunch is over. Im dehydrated, my bladder is the size of my old jetta wagon, and I'm about to eat my shoe. and stil 2 more hours to go....
so I get an email prior to work tonight that the hospital is on lockdown. that means no one in, no one out. multiple news vans outside as I walk up...30 cop cars. had to show my badge and go through the metal detector just to get into my own department.
the reason was a gang shooting with 10+ victims, all in my ER. super!
so I getto work (I was trauma float tonight...I'll explain all this later) so I had my fill of trashy south-county residents with their badly spelled tattoos and meth mouthed baby mama's. they were all gone by 2am.....
....only to be replaced with 4+ different gang related shooting victim. this happened in one of our fine casinos, again located in one of the southern counties whic has a high population of people with badly spelled tattoos and meth mouthed baby mamas...
so it's 5am...I've been here for 10.5 hours and am just getting my lunch. of course it's too late to eat the fabulous tilipia I made for dinner...I'm starving, but I'll be all bloated and fatty when I get home and try to sleep if I ate that shit now.
so legally I'm supposed to get 30 min lunch and 2 15 min breaks for my 12 hr shift. I'm lucky if I get 1 15. lunch is a fleeting fancy and I better not think of peeing j less every base is covered. if I'm missing off the floor, there will be hell to pay.
and now, my generous 30 minute lunch is over. Im dehydrated, my bladder is the size of my old jetta wagon, and I'm about to eat my shoe. and stil 2 more hours to go....
Saturday, July 23, 2011
First post
So it's a warm Saturday (which is odd because this seems to be the city that spring, and summer, forgot).
It's 4:50, which means only about an hour and a half before I head to that awful place where I spend 36 hours a week.
I'm a nurse. RN, to be exact. Have been for several years. Working in the ER of a large, busy, inner-city, level 1 trauma center. We get burns, psych, drug OD's...anything that walks through the door we will accept with open arms.
This is a blog about the realities of nursing, and patienting, as I see them. I see and hear and do a lot of shit. I've seen really great things happen, and really awful things happen. And I like talking about the things that I see, and that I hear, and that I do. I hope you like reading about them.
So it's a warm saturday afternoon. A neighborhood block party is going on, so undoubtedly we will see tons of drunkards, and OD's and other forms of inebriation. I swear, I would have died and had no street cred (well, the little that I had anyways) had I been taken to the ER for "drunkenness" in my youth. Blah! What pussies! Always 14 and 18 and 22 year olds, can't handle the hooch, come in spitting and ranting, so we dope them up and make them sober up, sleep it off and piss on themselves for 8 hours. Great time to be had by all. A great use of federal and state funds, by the way...
Or oh! It's Saturday night which is perfect for getting shitfaced and getting behind the wheel of a car and plowing into 2 other autos whilst going the wrong way down the interstate. Enter outraged family of DUI'er who threaten to sue you each time you mention that their dear lovely little lovey was shitfaced and driving, which are 2 things that should never go together.
Gotta love families.
Or the people who come in for toenail pain, and get frothy because they have to wait in the waiting room for 8 hours. And they have all 18 of their kids with them, rolling on the floor, digging through trash cans. I'm not a babysitter. I really don't give a shit if your kid gets a needle stick from digging through garbage. Yeah, heartless? Probably. But I got other shit to do, like keep people alive when their bodies have other ideas. Like keep an eye on the med students & residents who do things like write orders for a heparin drip for someone with a GI bleed (BUT THEY HAVE AFIB!! yes, and your point would be...??) . Oh and fielding the at least once a week question of "but can't you just IV push the potassium?" No. I can't. You can, though :evilgrin:
So off to work it is in an hour and a half.
If I'm your nurse, you're probably having the worst day of your life.
It's 4:50, which means only about an hour and a half before I head to that awful place where I spend 36 hours a week.
I'm a nurse. RN, to be exact. Have been for several years. Working in the ER of a large, busy, inner-city, level 1 trauma center. We get burns, psych, drug OD's...anything that walks through the door we will accept with open arms.
This is a blog about the realities of nursing, and patienting, as I see them. I see and hear and do a lot of shit. I've seen really great things happen, and really awful things happen. And I like talking about the things that I see, and that I hear, and that I do. I hope you like reading about them.
So it's a warm saturday afternoon. A neighborhood block party is going on, so undoubtedly we will see tons of drunkards, and OD's and other forms of inebriation. I swear, I would have died and had no street cred (well, the little that I had anyways) had I been taken to the ER for "drunkenness" in my youth. Blah! What pussies! Always 14 and 18 and 22 year olds, can't handle the hooch, come in spitting and ranting, so we dope them up and make them sober up, sleep it off and piss on themselves for 8 hours. Great time to be had by all. A great use of federal and state funds, by the way...
Or oh! It's Saturday night which is perfect for getting shitfaced and getting behind the wheel of a car and plowing into 2 other autos whilst going the wrong way down the interstate. Enter outraged family of DUI'er who threaten to sue you each time you mention that their dear lovely little lovey was shitfaced and driving, which are 2 things that should never go together.
Gotta love families.
Or the people who come in for toenail pain, and get frothy because they have to wait in the waiting room for 8 hours. And they have all 18 of their kids with them, rolling on the floor, digging through trash cans. I'm not a babysitter. I really don't give a shit if your kid gets a needle stick from digging through garbage. Yeah, heartless? Probably. But I got other shit to do, like keep people alive when their bodies have other ideas. Like keep an eye on the med students & residents who do things like write orders for a heparin drip for someone with a GI bleed (BUT THEY HAVE AFIB!! yes, and your point would be...??) . Oh and fielding the at least once a week question of "but can't you just IV push the potassium?" No. I can't. You can, though :evilgrin:
So off to work it is in an hour and a half.
If I'm your nurse, you're probably having the worst day of your life.
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