Mixin' it up...

Sometimes I am nice. I return calls, I do favors for my friends on the floor. I walk back to the unit from the SU with patients who are going that way, and their transporter's not there.

In fact, I'm getting used to the temporary office, and the fact, that I'm allowed to wander around to do my job. Yes, with stuff here, there and everywhere, I am getting my exercise walking. I need to walk anyway, since I sit for longer periods than I ever did while I was caring for people on the floor.

But if you try to tell me you're going to make me take less time doing my job to make you happy, Big Boss, I'm going to tell you the truth. You, nor your providers will get reimbursed for me or that SU work you're volunteering me for 'cause it ain't codeable. (Thank you coders and Ms. SU Guru for teaching me all the magic words to say about provider workload.)

I am here for the SU patients, you know, the rehabbers you wanted me especially for in the first place.

And if you think you're gonna mess with my people (even indirectly), you're gonna have to deal with me: She who will not be cowed.'Cause all these other coders and assorted folks who get you money are banking on me.

Any questions? I didn't think so...

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...