It was a regular old Monday. Nothing fancy. Went to work and had a few unforeseen occurrences. No biggie.
Educated patients (my favorite part of being a nurse) and did some other stuff. Went back to my desk, did more stuff, then came home.
Now I feel like doing nothing in particular, but ran into this funny suspension of reality: the dog texts. Made me think of WildDog, who, as a member of one of the smartest dog breeds was a crafty character.
Enjoy!
Showing posts with label character. Show all posts
Showing posts with label character. Show all posts
Monday, May 12, 2014
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Bully pulpit
I have a friend (no April Fool-- call him/her M) who is having this problem, and because he/she felt threatened while we completed our studies, he/she kept quiet until his/her internship was over. He/she suffered.
ANA discusses bullying in their Healthy Nurse section on Bullying and Workplace Violence:
Lateral violence refers to acts between colleagues and bullying is often described as acts perpetrated by one in a higher level of authority. This behavior may involve covert or overt acts of verbal and non-verbal aggression. These types of behavior have been reported to result in enough psychological distress to nurses to cause them to leave the profession (Dellasega, 2009).
The person perpetrating this bullying is in a higher level of authority. Ever heard of C-suite? Well, he/she is up there. It's hard to believe that your former preceptor would, out of the blue, accuse you of theft of intellectual property and assault your character in company e-mail of a prominent hospital system, but the former preceptor did.
All the while, my friend was just happy to receive a national award recently. When he/she came home the other day, there was a family crisis. Off to the hospital, but not for work. One of the family had become ill and required emergent surgery.
After I calmed him/her down, we discussed what happened since school. Everything is documented. Since the degree is done, I suggested he/she contact an attorney. Life's too short to live in fear of this crazy person.
As the saying goes, tough times never last, but tough people do.
More to come...
ANA discusses bullying in their Healthy Nurse section on Bullying and Workplace Violence:
Lateral violence refers to acts between colleagues and bullying is often described as acts perpetrated by one in a higher level of authority. This behavior may involve covert or overt acts of verbal and non-verbal aggression. These types of behavior have been reported to result in enough psychological distress to nurses to cause them to leave the profession (Dellasega, 2009).
The person perpetrating this bullying is in a higher level of authority. Ever heard of C-suite? Well, he/she is up there. It's hard to believe that your former preceptor would, out of the blue, accuse you of theft of intellectual property and assault your character in company e-mail of a prominent hospital system, but the former preceptor did.
All the while, my friend was just happy to receive a national award recently. When he/she came home the other day, there was a family crisis. Off to the hospital, but not for work. One of the family had become ill and required emergent surgery.
After I calmed him/her down, we discussed what happened since school. Everything is documented. Since the degree is done, I suggested he/she contact an attorney. Life's too short to live in fear of this crazy person.
As the saying goes, tough times never last, but tough people do.
More to come...
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Goodnight WildDog
I read this article recently about pet hospice and realized I was already doing it. WildDog, our elderly sheepdog was a funny, orderly, mischievous devil of a dog.
We got WildDog from a rescue, by accident. He was supposed to go to someone else, and they decided they didn't want him. We were looking at another dog when they told us he was ready for us. Dahey knew he was the dog for him as soon as he saw him, so we hurried down the highway on a cold, snowy day and picked him up.
The foster family told us he got queasy in cars. Dahey held him all the way home in his lap. He did just fine as long as he was petted while he was riding in a car. This always made going to the groomer and the vet an adventure. I told WildDog, "If you are good, you'll get a cookie," and he'd watch me put the cookie in my purse or pocket. He'd try to get at it, if he thought he could get it. However, he could be a perfect gentleman. It just varied.
WildDog was famous for flying through the air and snatching things off counter tops. Dahey was an eyewitness or I never would have believed that he really did eat all those blueberry muffins I wrapped up for my sister for breakfast from the MegaWarehouseStore. He also loved good loaves of bread. Not those artisanal ones Grumpy may talk about, but good, slightly soft, bread that is not cheap. I cannot count the number of loaves that he "opened" (i.e. chewed a hole in) to eat a couple of slices and leave the remaining loaf lying on the living room floor (since this is where he liked to eat his snacks.)
He was a great companion. He came from a breed known for herding, guarding and sticking close to humans. He was really my dog, because he picked me, but Dahey was his alpha dog. When Dahey travelled for work, he didn't always listen to me. It would take a couple of weeks. Sometimes, I had to put Dahey on speakerphone for the dog to listen. Occasionally, he relented.
When Bubba came along, he bonded with him over fistfuls of spaghetti. Bubba loved launching handfuls from his high chair and watching WildDog run. They had their spats (he even bit Bubba once), but the boys got along well.
Tonight, even after the gentle warnings, I had given Bubba about WildDog dying for months, Bubba cried and cried. WildDog was the only dog he'd ever had his entire life. He was his furry brother.
We will miss the pet, but character and spirit of WildDog, the charming little herding dog, will live on in our hearts.
Good night WildDog. See you at the Rainbow Bridge.
We got WildDog from a rescue, by accident. He was supposed to go to someone else, and they decided they didn't want him. We were looking at another dog when they told us he was ready for us. Dahey knew he was the dog for him as soon as he saw him, so we hurried down the highway on a cold, snowy day and picked him up.
The foster family told us he got queasy in cars. Dahey held him all the way home in his lap. He did just fine as long as he was petted while he was riding in a car. This always made going to the groomer and the vet an adventure. I told WildDog, "If you are good, you'll get a cookie," and he'd watch me put the cookie in my purse or pocket. He'd try to get at it, if he thought he could get it. However, he could be a perfect gentleman. It just varied.
WildDog was famous for flying through the air and snatching things off counter tops. Dahey was an eyewitness or I never would have believed that he really did eat all those blueberry muffins I wrapped up for my sister for breakfast from the MegaWarehouseStore. He also loved good loaves of bread. Not those artisanal ones Grumpy may talk about, but good, slightly soft, bread that is not cheap. I cannot count the number of loaves that he "opened" (i.e. chewed a hole in) to eat a couple of slices and leave the remaining loaf lying on the living room floor (since this is where he liked to eat his snacks.)
He was a great companion. He came from a breed known for herding, guarding and sticking close to humans. He was really my dog, because he picked me, but Dahey was his alpha dog. When Dahey travelled for work, he didn't always listen to me. It would take a couple of weeks. Sometimes, I had to put Dahey on speakerphone for the dog to listen. Occasionally, he relented.
When Bubba came along, he bonded with him over fistfuls of spaghetti. Bubba loved launching handfuls from his high chair and watching WildDog run. They had their spats (he even bit Bubba once), but the boys got along well.
Tonight, even after the gentle warnings, I had given Bubba about WildDog dying for months, Bubba cried and cried. WildDog was the only dog he'd ever had his entire life. He was his furry brother.
We will miss the pet, but character and spirit of WildDog, the charming little herding dog, will live on in our hearts.
Good night WildDog. See you at the Rainbow Bridge.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
You know you're a nurse when...
1. You get excited about dressing really horrible wounds. I like to consider myself the Queen of the WoundVAC since K. retired.
2. Input and output doesn't faze you.
3. Vomit? How much and what color, you ask.
4. And if the doc recommends this (as a transferring physician did recently), you know exactly what it is.
2. Input and output doesn't faze you.
3. Vomit? How much and what color, you ask.
4. And if the doc recommends this (as a transferring physician did recently), you know exactly what it is.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Finally!
Someone read my name on my board and sent a letter telling the boss what a wonderful experience he/she had while I took care of him/her.
I had taken care of this character before, and he'd always "forgotten" to mention me.
It's nice to be remembered once in a while.
Stay tuned!
I had taken care of this character before, and he'd always "forgotten" to mention me.
It's nice to be remembered once in a while.
Stay tuned!
Sunday, December 19, 2010
The holiday season
The holidays can be both happy and sad at the Hotel.
I was a good person today. After a marathon cookie-baking session with Bubba, I delivered some plates to my coworkers at work, just in time before they got ready for their own holiday lunch. Everyone seemed happy to see them.
I also got to talk to a few folks and I found out one of our regular characters died suddenly. Mr. F. and I got along really well, even if I wasn't always assigned to take care of him. He was a very smart guy, with an actual job, and he died with his proverbial boots on at work as he was getting ready to leave for the day. I'll miss those times when he'd ask me about the clues in the New York Times crossword puzzle in the newspaper. He got most of them, but he was always amazed that I could usually find the one he was missing (thanks to the internet). Overall, he was a decent person and never wanted to be a bother to anyone. While I'm sad, I'm not surprised he'd made a quick exit. He went the way he always said he wanted to go.
The holidays will be upon us soon and I'm very excited to see what happens. Stay tuned.
I was a good person today. After a marathon cookie-baking session with Bubba, I delivered some plates to my coworkers at work, just in time before they got ready for their own holiday lunch. Everyone seemed happy to see them.
I also got to talk to a few folks and I found out one of our regular characters died suddenly. Mr. F. and I got along really well, even if I wasn't always assigned to take care of him. He was a very smart guy, with an actual job, and he died with his proverbial boots on at work as he was getting ready to leave for the day. I'll miss those times when he'd ask me about the clues in the New York Times crossword puzzle in the newspaper. He got most of them, but he was always amazed that I could usually find the one he was missing (thanks to the internet). Overall, he was a decent person and never wanted to be a bother to anyone. While I'm sad, I'm not surprised he'd made a quick exit. He went the way he always said he wanted to go.
The holidays will be upon us soon and I'm very excited to see what happens. Stay tuned.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Ironies
There are just some things that are very ironic in my job.
First, no one expects anyone at the Madison to be efficient. As a professional, I expect my coworkers and team members to act that way, but apparently, it's only an illusion. We have people who are really, really professional, and others, who somehow missed the professional boat. Or it's just a hope, by some of the medical staff, that the nurses will screw up so they have something to complain about.
I'm not a transporter but occasionally, I have to transport my patients, when our one lowly transporter decides to do something else and not bother to notify the nurse manager or the charge nurse. This week, I had a person from another department actually stop me and ask me if "transporter" was somehow now on my badge, since she was so incredulous that RNs actually transport patients to and fro. Yes, Tina, RNs really do transport people in rehab! It's annoying, but it's just one of those tasks we get to do...and things that interrupt us (see page 7 in this article).
Second, doctors really need to have a communication class. For grins, we were reading notes on one of our patients. Note one said patient had been in an ICU situation and has a trach. Said patient wanted to talk so patient told attending, "Take this trach out." Said patient was so seriously ill that attending viewed this as the patient wanting to end his/her life. Attending, probably freaked out by patient wanting to end it all in his/her ICU, consulted psych. Note two said psych visited and patient repeatedly denied wanting to end his/her life. Patient stated, "I just want to take this thing out so I can talk." Can you imagine what would have happened if psych didn't get involved? This could have been the ultimate whoops situation.
One other good thing did occur: patient decided to have a family member act as healthcare POA in the event he/she really can't communicate.
Finally, I'm starting to think life is really like a collection of Seinfeld episodes. One of our patients looked just like a recurring character from the show. Many other folks on the floor (including myself) have bitten our tongues laughing as we want to yell his name as we stroll to his room down the hall. Besides humoring ourselves with this patient, we also spent a lot of the week talking about the Seinfeld episode about the English Patient. Yours truly finally got a copy and watched it...so that Seinfeld finally makes sense. We don't have any English patients, but the ironies of that movie and Seinfeld linger in our little world.
Stay tuned. More merriment to come...
First, no one expects anyone at the Madison to be efficient. As a professional, I expect my coworkers and team members to act that way, but apparently, it's only an illusion. We have people who are really, really professional, and others, who somehow missed the professional boat. Or it's just a hope, by some of the medical staff, that the nurses will screw up so they have something to complain about.
I'm not a transporter but occasionally, I have to transport my patients, when our one lowly transporter decides to do something else and not bother to notify the nurse manager or the charge nurse. This week, I had a person from another department actually stop me and ask me if "transporter" was somehow now on my badge, since she was so incredulous that RNs actually transport patients to and fro. Yes, Tina, RNs really do transport people in rehab! It's annoying, but it's just one of those tasks we get to do...and things that interrupt us (see page 7 in this article).
Second, doctors really need to have a communication class. For grins, we were reading notes on one of our patients. Note one said patient had been in an ICU situation and has a trach. Said patient wanted to talk so patient told attending, "Take this trach out." Said patient was so seriously ill that attending viewed this as the patient wanting to end his/her life. Attending, probably freaked out by patient wanting to end it all in his/her ICU, consulted psych. Note two said psych visited and patient repeatedly denied wanting to end his/her life. Patient stated, "I just want to take this thing out so I can talk." Can you imagine what would have happened if psych didn't get involved? This could have been the ultimate whoops situation.
One other good thing did occur: patient decided to have a family member act as healthcare POA in the event he/she really can't communicate.
Finally, I'm starting to think life is really like a collection of Seinfeld episodes. One of our patients looked just like a recurring character from the show. Many other folks on the floor (including myself) have bitten our tongues laughing as we want to yell his name as we stroll to his room down the hall. Besides humoring ourselves with this patient, we also spent a lot of the week talking about the Seinfeld episode about the English Patient. Yours truly finally got a copy and watched it...so that Seinfeld finally makes sense. We don't have any English patients, but the ironies of that movie and Seinfeld linger in our little world.
Stay tuned. More merriment to come...
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