Just lovin' it

Yes, in a mere three days I'll be done with the latest installment of my graduate education. And I have to say, I learned a lot. I learned that some people are just a pain in the arse. Yes, they are.

I thought we only hired non-professionals at the Hotel. No, kids, the non-profs are everywhere. What distinguishes them?

1. When you're supposed to function as a team and communicate with members who can't show up for meetings, you take minutes and post them before the next meeting.

2. You act like an adult.

3. You actually show up, and do some work.

and finally,

4. When you're assigned to be the leader, you lead. You don't goof off hiking in the woods when you're supposed to be responsible for an assignment (I wish that wasn't a real excuse...).

Now, I'm going to finish what I started, just like I said I would. And when I'm done, I'm gonna pray that we get a passing grade out of this one. I don't have a really good feeling.

Should make doing evaluations really interesting.

More on the way!

I am a nurse...

I am a leader.

This was the slogan for the ANA video contest. And this is the winning entry. Today, I thank not just Mandy, but all you school nurses out there. You rock!

The fugitive

I feel like a fugitive from the law of averages.  ~William H. Mauldin

That's the story of my life lately. Everything that can go wrong will, or at least it seemed that way on a recent shift.

I have the misfortune of having oddball things happen when I am the charge nurse. I've been in charge for a while (but too frequently) and things have been getting progressively weirder. Last time, some of the staff drove me so crazy I don't even want to talk to them anymore, because to ask them to do something is a burden. Eye rolls, heavy sighs, and flat out "no" on occasion gets my blood boiling. To top it all, these same people want to talk about teamwork....hello? I'm the captain of the team and I'd like you to, at the very least do your own work!

And if that's not enough, invite people in from outside and have them critique your work. I was this close (imagine index finger and thumb close together) to calling the ambulance supervisor for the crew who took one of our patients out. DweedleDee and DweedleDum complained about the patient, complained about the necessary items he/she had to take along, then complained "Why didn't the doc send this patient out sooner?"

I just asked them to get him/her out of the Hotel, but in the back of my mind, I really just wanted to blow it all and ask them when they got their MDs. Funny, I only saw EMT on their shirts. I'm no MD, nor would I presume to know everything about this guy. This was the second pain in the arse crew on our unit and if it were up to me, I would lodge a formal complaint. Your job is to get Patient X from us to point B that's it. Medical treatment philosophy is not my business.

Thankfully, both these people were out quickly. Acute situations are inappropriate for rehab for obvious safety reasons. Sure, I love giving blood out as much as the next guy, but if you're gonna need unit after unit, and potential surgical intervention, you need to go somewhere else.

Enough venting for me...off to vegetate until it's time to be Homework Taskmaster with Bubba before all the sports....stay tuned.