Not just nice

Sometimes, it's necessary. Introducing yourself to the specialist who may be visiting your unit is not just a common (really uncommon) courtesy, it's important. Especially to your patient who needs him/her and his/her expertise.

Thank you Suzanne Gordon for reminding us of this very important fact.

Remember, look up and introduce yourself. Your patient is worth it (and so are you)!

Stay tuned.

Follow your arrow

We talk a lot about how we work together as a team, but sometimes, it seems like we miss the point.

I have had to work with Manglement to bring nurses into the Hotel. One manager has retooled all the interview questions (yes, we use them for a number of reasons) to ask questions about the team.

One nurse wanted to transfer from one unit to another. No dice because this nurse has had an issue with the hiring manager in the past. We also had other unsuitable candidates. Why? Because some of them just don't come prepared. They don't sell themselves. You give them time and they don't know how to do it!

So, if you're on a journey, and want to go somewhere new, follow your arrow. Learn along the way. Just because something fails once or twice, or even three to thirteen times, you will eventually get to success. Listen. Find mentors and read the signs along the way.

Enjoy your weekend wherever you may roam.

 

Happy Hump Day

An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.~ James Whistler

It's hard to have vision when the labor is all you have time for some days, when people absolutely, positively refuse to do what they say they will and leave you with the rest.

And do you think it could get worse? Yes, it could. Your big boss tells you to help him/her with the big chief of medicine meeting today. The one positive: you can just send your report, because, in finest tradition, the people in the field (i.e. troops) are not allowed to attend. (Hallelujah!)

Gotta love that interdisciplinary teamwork (head smacks firmly into table)!

Stay tuned...you never know what will happen at the Hotel.

Not passive, but definitely agressive

Oh, it was such a delight to read an e-mail with lovely things like this:

"Don't we already do this?"
Yes, but not the way the main office says we will do it.

"Does it make our staff look incompetent?"
Not if you aren't already, and with e-mail like this, I wonder.

"..prime therapy time stolen"
FYI this is for aquatherapy...for which only certain Hotel patients qualify. Yes, I'm asking for that time (around an hour) so I'm that time thief.

So being a good team member, I bounced this to a couple of nurses at another two hospitals in the system.
Their answers when I gently mentioned the time conflicts were similar:

"Yes, we had the same thing until the chief medical officer had a chat..."
"Once they knew we were really going to do it and not back down..."

And after I recovered from the shock, I asked whether it would be okay with these folks to bring along two of the people who helped me write the bulk of the process documentation at the request of the boss.

I loved the response to that. My reason: share and share alike (if there going to try to take me down, I'm bringing my own backup...)


"Not sure what that has to do with explaining the reason for the change."

It will be interesting to see what happens at our meeting. Stay tuned. TGIF!

Teamwork...not!

How's this for teamwork....

1. Boss tells you, "I'll handle that." and proceeds not to do what you ask him (communicate).

2. So, doing the job your boss asked you to do, you send an e-mail to all the affected parties for further feedback and updates on the plan Boss asked you to implement.

3. One of the teams sends a very inappropriate e-mail with feedback, then demands your presence at their next team meeting.

4. Boss also mentions that he/she will go with you to meeting.

5. Since you thought this was a team project all along, you invite some of the other folks who helped you work on the plan.

6. Said team (who wants you at the meeting) says, "Why do they have to come?"

7. You kindly reply that you thought an interdisciplinary team was just that...an interdisciplinary team.

And pray, that your boss will actually show up for said meeting since you think he'll just ditch everyone and leave you out in the cold.

We shall see...so much for team cohesiveness in RehabLand.

The plot thickens

Lots of craziness going on in the Hotel. Hustle, bustle, and renovating in my world. The painting part is going slowly, so I've been relocated to the office I started out in when I transferred. I don't really mind, since I enjoy my office mates.

I may get some new compatriots in the SU, or the ones who are there may stay on permanently. This is a hot topic on the unit, since everyone wants to run away from the boss. They'll do anything to get on day shift so they can take off and run.

Very few people are happy right where they are. They think there are too many changes. It would have come to us no matter what. It's been a year since Boss said he/she was moving on, but he/she didn't leave right away. Many people are still marooned and not coping well. The New Boss had to reiterate that his/her door was open, so ask if you want something, don't gossip. Seems like an easy concept, but it's not really as much fun to not gossip at the Hotel.

We will just have to wait and see, as the plot thickens.

More later...my Malbec is calling me. I've been good!

The final countdown

No, we're not headed to Venus, but it sure seems like an extended odyssey. Still plugging away with the most sleep-deprived member of the team.

Should be an interesting day. Stay tuned.

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!

Joy of joys, details at 11

Team meeting tonight. It would possibly include the news tagline "Details at 11" if R. lived in the same city as one of our other teammates for this grad class. Thank goodness for the internet...keeping nurses from physically throttling other nurses at team meetings.

It also helps that we have a leader who is completely clueless on the group dynamics. Here's a chance to have more hours of my life thrown into a black hole of nothingness, and to top it all with a cherry, this assignment is due this week.

And if that's not enough, Boss and I get to hit the road to visit for a meeting halfway across the country.

I'm packing my bags, 'cause Maalox here I come! Stay tuned...

Lather, rinse, repeat part 37

(head bang into wall) Please tell me how many more days of Purgatory this grad school "teamwork" class is again?

Only 57 more days, my classmate, R. reminds me. It's just not soon enough.(another head bang)

The joys of teamwork

I don't know how my coworker J. kept all the balls in the air when managing projects for our little tech team at BehemothConsumerProducts, where I worked at many moons ago, but I certainly appreciate it now.

Lately, I've been taking on that role in my graduate school classes, which, incidentally, require at least one team project per semester. Add to the excitement: all the members of the team are not necessarily in the same state, or even country. Ah, the joys of online learning.

Nevertheless, I orchestrated a beautiful team plan, divvied out all the tasks and organized meetings online and via phone when needed. I even posted our completed project ahead of the required time.
And while I was enjoying myself at a long awaited celebration with one of my nurse friends, one of the teammates got wigged out over one little thing.

Happily, I was able to smooth it over with the instructor, and get everything settled.

Only one thing remains: said nurse needs a psych consult. I can't diagnose it, but someone definitely may need a prescribed chill pill.

So glad the semester is over. CJ, one of my other classmates, an escaped rehab nurse from down south (now a tech trainer), and I celebrated by phone, by lifting our well-deserved glasses of pinot grigio in our respective places.We survived another semester of grad school. Happy, happy, happy.

And now I return to the last full day of vacation. Reality hits again next week...hope I'm ready.

Grumpy

Hey, at least my day did not start out like Doc Grumpy's did today!

I'm still perturbed. Let's see what can I rant about? Maybe teamwork? One of our Gen Y-er nurses decided to use the "get out early card" recently and so she practiced by slacking all the way up to the last hour, chatting and texting her hookup/boyfriend/male of the evening during the entire shift....when she didn't stop to do puzzles. The Slug would be proud of this protege. (Happily, the Slug had the evening off).

The boss is a jerk. How many days until he/she leaves? Word on the street is that the new unit he/she is going to has a lot of problems, just like ours. He/she should feel at home. Maybe he/she can take 1-2 of the malingerers who called in sick recently on the night shift. We can only hope...for a better boss, and,  as my favorite charge nurse said so eloquently, "a fair one." Yes, indeedy!

One of our favorite nurses, who lives in Far Far Out Township, lost a parent recently. Know how we found out? Not from our boss, but from a guy who came to our unit who used to work with us. FN's parent has already been buried. FN used to always work my shift and frankly, I was perturbed. Guess I will get a condolence card and bring it in to work for the rest of us peons who weren't in the "in crowd" and thus did  not know ahead of time.

I've ranted enough  for now, since  I'm going back to bed, just in case I end up with the short end of the stick tonight and end up on a double shift.

Stay tuned...

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.

Countdown

At the end of the week, I will get a long weekend away from the Hotel with my boys. It's not much, but I'll take every single second of it.

Some days are better than others. I was cruising into an uneventful end to my stint on the late shift recently when the quiet was replaced by pandemonium.

First, one patient spikes a ridiculous temp. Said patient's had problems before so we call our MD on call. Get orders. Rush about doing tasks. All is good, even if we have to harass some of our night pharmacists to get what we need.

Next, patient #2 does the same thing. Patient #2 has more pre-existing issues the MD worries about, so we call MD, get orders to have local MD see patient, and he doesn't show up. Nor does he call our MD or do whatever she asked me to ask him. Nope. He says "wait until tomorrow." Our MD is pissed. We had an issue getting the labs to this doc, so with some luck, we managed to do it (not everything is automated at the Hotel) and MD orders an IV.

What does this mean? I get to call pharmacy again and listen to the deep sighs when I tell them I have a stat order. It's as if they've never gotten one. I am so glad I'm not right there to see their faces. I really hate that "Oh, I can't do this because I don't want to do it" entitlement attitude, because I'm a crappy poker face and my thoughts aren't hidden for long.

Charge nurse got everything done because, for the most part, we worked as a team. I just wish all of our team would have cooperated without the attitude.

Outside of that, my grad class is almost done and for a short class, it's had it's share of drama, too, especially for my entire team. Every single solitary one of us has had something going on this semester that's been distracting, even life-threatening. My favorite team member, T., has problems now that may mean she won't be back next semester. I hope they can get resolved. I will miss working with her if she's not around.

Now, back to the grind, and on to the rest of the week. Stay tuned.