Dashed dreams

Yes, the full moon is coming, and craziness is just down the way. Lately, though, the mood has been mixed, somber and silly, crazy and cool at the Hotel.

I heard part two of a story about one of our new nurses. Funny thing, both stories about the same incident were completely different from nurses with many years of experience, one present for the whole thing and one who heard about the incident from the nurse directly. It just reminds me that scuttlebutt is just that...lots of rumor and not lots of substance.

For our pending Magnet application at our facility, we had to fill out the yearly satisfaction survey. I usually make a line down my paper, straight down the middle of all the dots. I chose not to do that this year. If they really want us to get Magnet, they really need to know what's going on. Difference tolerated? You must be kidding...Is your manager supportive? Sure, if you can come to work every day and not ask for anything out of the ordinary. Are your peers supportive? I nearly fell on the floor dying of laughter on that one, especially after the incident I mentioned earlier. How do we support and nurture new nurses if we don't talk to them rationally and make everything a turf war where someone has to "win"?

One of our patients recently went for a series of GI tests. One revealed a very large gastric "polyp". My heart sank when I read the procedure report. The colonoscopy revealed some issues, too, but none like that. They also ran the usual bug tests to see what else is going on. Now all we can do is wait.

The patients, however, were still the same, rolling around, going to therapy, watching TV.

And the story continues...stay tuned.