Dear Weekend:
Thank you for arriving. Waiting for you this week has been interesting. Yes, there were fun things this week but there were things that were decidedly not fun.
The beautiful sunny weather is disappearing this weekend, so I'll make myself productive again inside.
Here's hoping for better weather next week when Bubba is on Spring Break.
We can only hope.
Yours sincerely,
RehabRN
Showing posts with label letter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label letter. Show all posts
Friday, March 18, 2016
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Enduring manglement
Yes, that's the game we've been playing at the Hotel.
Bigwigs come and go, but power struggles last forever.
This week: the Manglement tried to suspend our boss, because he/she was one calendar day late on producing a document to his/her boss. It didn't matter that he/she couldn't take the class the day it was due because they had him/her doing something else "important" (as if 7 hours a week minimum of meetings isn't enough).
His/her PHB, our feckless chief nurse, got HR to send a letter of reprimand over, with requirements they figured he/she'd never fulfill.
At the behest of the Hotel MD chief, he/she sent over the missive to the hospital director and his second in command. It was lengthy, and told a story of an LPN who became an RN, who now as a nurse manager, took over the position at the Hotel after several other people said it would never work.
He/she knows us. He/she was one of us on the floor, and us old timers remember that. The nurse who never said, "I'm too busy to wash Mr. Z's hair," or "I don't want to do x, y , or z." This is the nurse who got certified in rehab, worked hard to keep patients and their rooms immaculate, to really CARE about what happened to them. The nurse who is proud to be a nurse .
So now we endure as he/she awaits the results of the appeal. Here's hoping they see the light before they screw up something else. The dim view of the Hotel could very well get worse.
More later...
Bigwigs come and go, but power struggles last forever.
This week: the Manglement tried to suspend our boss, because he/she was one calendar day late on producing a document to his/her boss. It didn't matter that he/she couldn't take the class the day it was due because they had him/her doing something else "important" (as if 7 hours a week minimum of meetings isn't enough).
His/her PHB, our feckless chief nurse, got HR to send a letter of reprimand over, with requirements they figured he/she'd never fulfill.
At the behest of the Hotel MD chief, he/she sent over the missive to the hospital director and his second in command. It was lengthy, and told a story of an LPN who became an RN, who now as a nurse manager, took over the position at the Hotel after several other people said it would never work.
He/she knows us. He/she was one of us on the floor, and us old timers remember that. The nurse who never said, "I'm too busy to wash Mr. Z's hair," or "I don't want to do x, y , or z." This is the nurse who got certified in rehab, worked hard to keep patients and their rooms immaculate, to really CARE about what happened to them. The nurse who is proud to be a nurse .
So now we endure as he/she awaits the results of the appeal. Here's hoping they see the light before they screw up something else. The dim view of the Hotel could very well get worse.
More later...
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
The joy of tests
I had no idea there were so many standardized tests for grade school kids until I did a little recon.
Bubba is in the throes of standardized testing this week. So what to kids do to prepare?
In my day, (eons) we did all our homework and showed up at school with a number 2 pencil. The scoring sheets were sent off, then returned on a little printed slip for our parents. Nothing significant was really done with the information.
For Bubba, it's been a completely different story. We were prepped for the tests by the teacher at the last parent-teacher conference. Notes came home telling us to make sure Bubba goes to bed early and no texting or game-playing while in bed.
If that parenting tidbit wasn't enough, we were also given a menu of what "good" breakfast food is, and how Bubba needed to make sure he eats breakfast every day of testing.
Finally, Dahey and I were asked to write "motivation letters" to get Bubba excited about sitting through hours of testing. Dahey, of course, found goofy photos on the internet, including certain cats like this one and even some sarcastic cats.
I'm glad the two of them have a similar sense of humor.
More test excitement to come...
Bubba is in the throes of standardized testing this week. So what to kids do to prepare?
In my day, (eons) we did all our homework and showed up at school with a number 2 pencil. The scoring sheets were sent off, then returned on a little printed slip for our parents. Nothing significant was really done with the information.
For Bubba, it's been a completely different story. We were prepped for the tests by the teacher at the last parent-teacher conference. Notes came home telling us to make sure Bubba goes to bed early and no texting or game-playing while in bed.
If that parenting tidbit wasn't enough, we were also given a menu of what "good" breakfast food is, and how Bubba needed to make sure he eats breakfast every day of testing.
Finally, Dahey and I were asked to write "motivation letters" to get Bubba excited about sitting through hours of testing. Dahey, of course, found goofy photos on the internet, including certain cats like this one and even some sarcastic cats.
I'm glad the two of them have a similar sense of humor.
More test excitement to come...
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Is it the end?
It certainly is almost the end of the weekend and the end of the year. I will miss that, the weekend part, anyway.
WildDog is getting slower and more incontinent. Not sure when/if his end will come soon. I thought about it the other day when I wrote the Christmas letter. We have had WildDog since before Bubba was born, and he was about 5 years old when we got him. He is getting gray around his muzzle, too.
Even though, he's an old dog, he loves the head scratches and ear rubs.
My car is making all sorts of noises. Dahey is in charge of investigating that. What joy! It's older than Bubba and almost as old as WildDog.
I'm thinking it might be time to just buy a little compact to go back and forth to work, since I'm lucky enough to be close to the Hotel.
Plenty to think about...
WildDog is getting slower and more incontinent. Not sure when/if his end will come soon. I thought about it the other day when I wrote the Christmas letter. We have had WildDog since before Bubba was born, and he was about 5 years old when we got him. He is getting gray around his muzzle, too.
Even though, he's an old dog, he loves the head scratches and ear rubs.
My car is making all sorts of noises. Dahey is in charge of investigating that. What joy! It's older than Bubba and almost as old as WildDog.
I'm thinking it might be time to just buy a little compact to go back and forth to work, since I'm lucky enough to be close to the Hotel.
Plenty to think about...
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!
Monday, February 21, 2011
Presidents' Day postscript
Dear Boss:
Thanks ever so much for leaving the Hotel in a tizzy. Yes, you know when you take a long weekend to be with your kids, who are off school, and don't assign a charge nurse, everyone gets stupid. (That is the ones who actually show up).
Nothing says "Thanks, enjoy the day" like having a mutinous skeleton crew on a Monday morning.
Hope you and the kids found something fun to do. At least, no one coded or acted silly here.
Here's hoping you get a clue next time.
Cordially not,
RehabRN
Thanks ever so much for leaving the Hotel in a tizzy. Yes, you know when you take a long weekend to be with your kids, who are off school, and don't assign a charge nurse, everyone gets stupid. (That is the ones who actually show up).
Nothing says "Thanks, enjoy the day" like having a mutinous skeleton crew on a Monday morning.
Hope you and the kids found something fun to do. At least, no one coded or acted silly here.
Here's hoping you get a clue next time.
Cordially not,
RehabRN
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Dear Dr. Idiot
(aka an open letter to the boss)
Dear Dr. Idiot:
Thanks for all throwing my mailbox over the limit because I dared to ask the graphics department for graphics. Thanks also for acting like a complete ass and berating me via e-mail. It's so passive-aggressive...have you been hanging around with some of our nurses lately? It shows.
BTW if you actually read your e-mails, you'd have noticed that I informed you I would contact the graphics department and awaited your response before our meeting.
Maybe if your head was somewhere outside of your anus you might have noticed, but then again, you don't get paid to do the work, just think about it and write orders.
Sincerely not,
RehabRN
Dear Dr. Idiot:
Thanks for all throwing my mailbox over the limit because I dared to ask the graphics department for graphics. Thanks also for acting like a complete ass and berating me via e-mail. It's so passive-aggressive...have you been hanging around with some of our nurses lately? It shows.
BTW if you actually read your e-mails, you'd have noticed that I informed you I would contact the graphics department and awaited your response before our meeting.
Maybe if your head was somewhere outside of your anus you might have noticed, but then again, you don't get paid to do the work, just think about it and write orders.
Sincerely not,
RehabRN
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Sometimes...
"You wanna be where everybody knows your name." Gary Portnoy & Judy Hart Angelo, Cheers theme song
Around the Hotel, it's a little like Cheers. We have lots of people who come to see us...over and over. We're not just a Hotel, really, but also an office building, as our clinics and offices are in the same hospital complex. So we really do see people, coming and going.
Today's admission is a regular. If he could sit on a bar stool, he'd be like Norm with one reserved for him and if he drank, a cold one waiting. Alas, NotNorm doesn't drink and he's just staying for a short time with us for a procedure, then going home. NN managed to arrive bright and early for his admission and he regaled everyone with his recent adventures, which also included a near-miss with heavy traffic in his neighborhood, due to a wheelchair gone awry.
When he wasn't keeping the natives in stitches, NN also gave our new resident fits, because he/she was worried about his skin due to a number of moles. So Dr. G. came down to check out NN, and point out to the resident, that those moles were actually seborrheic keratoses. On top of it, Dr. G. complimented my notes while he/she was in the room. It's nice to hear compliments, when everyone else is giving you a load, literally and figuratively.
Our Manglement has decided that nursing may not be paid expenses to attend conferences, even when invited or selected on the conference curriculum as faculty. We can get approved absence from work, but no travel expense payment. This won't stop our leader and a few cronies from attending (their expenses are from a different pool), but as nurses, we've been told we can only go if we pay our own way. Traveling partner and I have some ideas, but we've basically resorted to checking with a few resources with our hats off and hands out. We'll see how it goes, since apparently the old maxim is true: no good deed goes unpunished.
So off I go to prepare the "Can you help us?" letters, since standing out on a curb with a cardboard sign is really just too hard since it's hot here right now. Thank goodness I have years of experience selling stuff!
Want to send two really interesting nurses to a conference and see your name on their suits as they present? E-mail us!
(Not really, but it's a start...not sure if any NASCAR people are showing up to this conference.)
Stay tuned...I may have to think up a blog-a-thon, if the letter writing campaign is unsuccessful.
Around the Hotel, it's a little like Cheers. We have lots of people who come to see us...over and over. We're not just a Hotel, really, but also an office building, as our clinics and offices are in the same hospital complex. So we really do see people, coming and going.
Today's admission is a regular. If he could sit on a bar stool, he'd be like Norm with one reserved for him and if he drank, a cold one waiting. Alas, NotNorm doesn't drink and he's just staying for a short time with us for a procedure, then going home. NN managed to arrive bright and early for his admission and he regaled everyone with his recent adventures, which also included a near-miss with heavy traffic in his neighborhood, due to a wheelchair gone awry.
When he wasn't keeping the natives in stitches, NN also gave our new resident fits, because he/she was worried about his skin due to a number of moles. So Dr. G. came down to check out NN, and point out to the resident, that those moles were actually seborrheic keratoses. On top of it, Dr. G. complimented my notes while he/she was in the room. It's nice to hear compliments, when everyone else is giving you a load, literally and figuratively.
Our Manglement has decided that nursing may not be paid expenses to attend conferences, even when invited or selected on the conference curriculum as faculty. We can get approved absence from work, but no travel expense payment. This won't stop our leader and a few cronies from attending (their expenses are from a different pool), but as nurses, we've been told we can only go if we pay our own way. Traveling partner and I have some ideas, but we've basically resorted to checking with a few resources with our hats off and hands out. We'll see how it goes, since apparently the old maxim is true: no good deed goes unpunished.
So off I go to prepare the "Can you help us?" letters, since standing out on a curb with a cardboard sign is really just too hard since it's hot here right now. Thank goodness I have years of experience selling stuff!
Want to send two really interesting nurses to a conference and see your name on their suits as they present? E-mail us!
(Not really, but it's a start...not sure if any NASCAR people are showing up to this conference.)
Stay tuned...I may have to think up a blog-a-thon, if the letter writing campaign is unsuccessful.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Open letter to the soon-to-be "not new" nurses
Dear New Nurses,
Can you believe you've been signing your name with RN behind it for nearly a year? We can't either. It's always nice to have new people on the unit.
Don't forget...
Speed will come. It gets even faster as you go along.
You will still learn something new every day. That's why K., the charge nurse, who's been here 30+ years is still here. Never a dull moment.
Your new ideas are still new and fresh. Keep learning and don't forget to share what you know.
Just remember...
This is work. Not an after-school gathering at a watering hole as some people seem to make it. Yes, work is a four letter word. Not a bad one, just happens to have four letters. Work never killed anyone.
Help is also a four letter word. Don't be shy. Ask people if you can help them when you're free (which, incidentally is also four letters). Feel free to do stuff people like, but don't always have time to do--stock supplies, get iced water, empty urinals and report the results.
Don't be a slug. We already have one (two, three...) already. That job is already taken, and will not endear you to management. It may not get you much at all, outside of acquiring a bad habit and an eventual pink slip.
Dream and dream big. Make your plans and go for them, be it climbing mountains, climbing the stairs, or even going into management. This may mean more work and/or school or liberal combinations of both, but don't rely on your youthful looks forever.
“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” Greg Anderson
I'm glad you're here to do it with us.
Sincerely,
RehabRN
Can you believe you've been signing your name with RN behind it for nearly a year? We can't either. It's always nice to have new people on the unit.
Don't forget...
Speed will come. It gets even faster as you go along.
You will still learn something new every day. That's why K., the charge nurse, who's been here 30+ years is still here. Never a dull moment.
Your new ideas are still new and fresh. Keep learning and don't forget to share what you know.
Just remember...
This is work. Not an after-school gathering at a watering hole as some people seem to make it. Yes, work is a four letter word. Not a bad one, just happens to have four letters. Work never killed anyone.
Help is also a four letter word. Don't be shy. Ask people if you can help them when you're free (which, incidentally is also four letters). Feel free to do stuff people like, but don't always have time to do--stock supplies, get iced water, empty urinals and report the results.
Don't be a slug. We already have one (two, three...) already. That job is already taken, and will not endear you to management. It may not get you much at all, outside of acquiring a bad habit and an eventual pink slip.
Dream and dream big. Make your plans and go for them, be it climbing mountains, climbing the stairs, or even going into management. This may mean more work and/or school or liberal combinations of both, but don't rely on your youthful looks forever.
“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” Greg Anderson
I'm glad you're here to do it with us.
Sincerely,
RehabRN
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Did you ever think....
You'd be happy to see a letter from your employer? You would be if that letter tells you your lost lunch time was not in vain. The letter has a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo, but I may get enough to buy a few new uniforms...or put it in my grad school fund.
Stay tuned!
Stay tuned!
Monday, April 13, 2009
Nuggets for April 13
No, I haven't forgotten these...just been a little busy. Here are a few I found recently while perusing the net in my rapidly disappearing spare time. Enjoy!
Out and about in the health world
DNA test outperforms pap smear (from www.nytimes.com)
I can count the number of female patients I see at Madison on one hand. This article discusses a new test that could eventually replace the infamous Pap. Prevention of this disease is a very good thing.
In cancer, a deeper faith (from www.nytimes.com)
I really enjoy the first-person accounts that appear in this section. This one, geared toward the Passover/Easter season, is quite memorable.
Uncovering the secrets of gray hair (from www.nytimes.com)
I don't cover mine, yet! I really enjoyed this article on how hair turns gray. As usual, they found out much of the information by accident--researching another topic.
A little more nursing-oriented
Are you feeling a little burned out and need some helpful hints to post on the back room bulletin board? Never fear, the folks at the Compassion Fatigue Project have the Eight Laws all ready in nice PDF format. Here's a description of what they're talking about from their web site:
The Eight Laws...
Here at the Compassion Fatigue Awareness Project, we believe you can take control of your own well-being and create steps towards healing in your own life.
The following are 'Eight Laws' to help you create a healthier workplace for yourself, provide healthier care for others, promote healthier change in your life, and practice better self-care.
Just remember...if you don't take care of yourself, no one else will!
I found this tidbit about nurses at Hell on White Clogs: An open letter to every patient and their family. It made me think of a lot of things: patients, regular people and the good, old Press-Ganeys.
If only we had bosses like these
$80,000 for a year off? She'll take it
A law firm in NYC offers a third pay to associates to take off for one year. The not-so-bad catch: you won't be laid off if you choose this when you come back.
Finally
And just when you thought RehabRN gets all of her nuggets from NYC...I found this one via my ANA newsletter: Dean researching off-peak hour hospital death rate. It certainly made me look...since it seems like all of our problems happen in the off-hours.
Out and about in the health world
DNA test outperforms pap smear (from www.nytimes.com)
I can count the number of female patients I see at Madison on one hand. This article discusses a new test that could eventually replace the infamous Pap. Prevention of this disease is a very good thing.
In cancer, a deeper faith (from www.nytimes.com)
I really enjoy the first-person accounts that appear in this section. This one, geared toward the Passover/Easter season, is quite memorable.
Uncovering the secrets of gray hair (from www.nytimes.com)
I don't cover mine, yet! I really enjoyed this article on how hair turns gray. As usual, they found out much of the information by accident--researching another topic.
A little more nursing-oriented
Are you feeling a little burned out and need some helpful hints to post on the back room bulletin board? Never fear, the folks at the Compassion Fatigue Project have the Eight Laws all ready in nice PDF format. Here's a description of what they're talking about from their web site:
The Eight Laws...
Here at the Compassion Fatigue Awareness Project, we believe you can take control of your own well-being and create steps towards healing in your own life.
The following are 'Eight Laws' to help you create a healthier workplace for yourself, provide healthier care for others, promote healthier change in your life, and practice better self-care.
Just remember...if you don't take care of yourself, no one else will!
I found this tidbit about nurses at Hell on White Clogs: An open letter to every patient and their family. It made me think of a lot of things: patients, regular people and the good, old Press-Ganeys.
If only we had bosses like these
$80,000 for a year off? She'll take it
A law firm in NYC offers a third pay to associates to take off for one year. The not-so-bad catch: you won't be laid off if you choose this when you come back.
Finally
And just when you thought RehabRN gets all of her nuggets from NYC...I found this one via my ANA newsletter: Dean researching off-peak hour hospital death rate. It certainly made me look...since it seems like all of our problems happen in the off-hours.
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