Sick day

When you absolutely, positively need a break before the end of the week? You call in sick (or in my case, exhausted).

The last straw? The doctor who almost no showed my last patient appointment of the day, then shows up in the last 10 minutes. What does this mean? My patient is taken care of but, I miss my important diagnostic that my PCP had ordered, but I couldn't do at lunch time. More unpaid OT...not fun.

Never fear, however. This nurse case manager found out that Saintarama urgent care can indeed do the tests that Dr. H. put in electronically. The outpatient area was closed when I left work.

"Come on over" the lady in the urgent care said. "We'll take care of you. We're here until 8."

Happily, no pneumonia, but a nasty, nasty case of viral bronchitis. The only thing I didn't have was some codeine cough syrup.

Problem now solved...and I stopped barking and coughing a while ago.

Back to work tomorrow, then excitement with Bubba who starts spring break.

Never a dull moment at the Hotel or at home. Stay tuned!

Dysfunctional families at work

It's not just the patients at the Hotel who have dysfunctional families, but the employees act like a dysfunctional family, too.

Your boss decides to tell your office mate he/she is a "downer and never has anything good to say". Said nurse is always doing more than expected, unlike a large portion of the staff we work with. Said nurse is also stressed by an HR department that "forgot" his/her promotion (which means no more money on the payroll as promised, which is nice during the holidays or any season) and who is genuinely feeling awful. I finally convinced Neighbor to see the new PCP at the Hotel after failed attempts with one in another system who never returned calls. Neighbor has some scary symptoms that don't warrant a hospital stay, but are concerning nevertheless. Crossing my fingers that a specialist appointment (or two) is on his/her appointment list soon.

I had the distinct pleasure of participating in a facility-wide job fair. It's a good thing they rented out hotel space because we were mobbed. I participated in over a dozen interviews for nursing staff. It was amazing the amount of people we got to show up. I hope the nursing recruiter  has learned: be prepared for CNAs. They seem to always be looking for a job and freebies. A few were exceptional, a couple were good, but only about half were recommended for hire. It would have been nice to have another group to interview these folks, because we had so many people show up, it took FOREVER.

My partner was another nurse from our department who I don't see a lot. She is Ms. Right as in "I'm always right"and is well-known for spending most of our staff meetings fighting with the boss. She has years of experience, but sometimes doesn't act like it. She thinks what she thinks is more important than following policy, procedure or even, evidence-based practice. She came from another high-intensity area and sometimes, she needs to go straight back. She's gotten comfortable, though, in her role, so short of a egregious error of judgment, she'll never leave before she gets her advanced degree. I really wish her graduation date was soon...

The good thing: some of our staff scheduled appointments for me. This meant I had to show up, so I spend the last hours of my day taking care of them, reviewing what happened this week and it was pretty darned good. We had one of the best weeks ever for SU encounters. It was a bright spot to this Supermoon crazy kind of week. I'll take it.

May your weekend be full of joy. Don't let the turkeys (or Ms. Rights) get you down!

'Til next time...

Reality check

How many of you go to work sick? Raise your hands.

If I had a 100% rate, I would not be surprised. Nurses often come to work with illnesses for a variety of reasons. This article has one of the best arguments I've seen for a long time.

I have gone to work because I'm a master at assessment. I've had chronic health issues (nothing major) for years. My body is good at telling me what's wrong.

These are my rules:

1. If I have a fever and will be in regular contact with patients, I'm not going to work. Plain and simple. If I can't do paperwork that day and hide to avoid breathing on anyone, I'm out. I had nursing instructors beat this into me, I mean, reinforce this vigorously on my clinical rotations. As I know from my work in the SU, if you have a fever, you probably are infected with something. This red light is one you should not ignore.

Do everyone a favor. Don't share and stay home. This health system actually publishes an algorithm.

2. Diarrhea will also keep me home. If they only knew how busy our staff bathrooms are (and many times, it's not just staff using them).

3. If you have any other symptoms that are not normal or normal for you, i.e. vision or balance disturbances, you probably need to see what's going on first before coming to work.

My managers always love the "migraine with vertigo" call in (I've used it), but I don't care. You should like being able to keep affordable car insurance. If walking is a problem, driving will be, too.

Also, never take any open wounds (even paper cuts) for granted. If you can't cover them effectively, you need to consider staying home until you can.

I like my doctors. They know I won't bug them unless I think it's an issue for me and my patients. Be sure to have a PCP, so when you need them, you have them. I love mine because she likes nurses and always has our back (she has no problem talking to pesky nurse managers if needed).

To sum it up, if you're sick, don't buck it up. Take care of yourself so you can take care of your patients (and not contaminate your coworkers). You deserve to be well, and so do your patients and coworkers.

More later.

So glad...

My PCP likes me.

He/she managed to convince Dahey he needed a DRE and a colonoscopy, since he didn't decide to have his physical on his birthday, like I asked.

Now I just have to get him/her to get him a pain management consult to see why his goofy back and legs are having random pains again.My guess after working with Dr. S. in the SU is that Dahey may have this problem.

Crossing fingers. By the time this year is done, Dahey will be as good as new (at least he'll seem like it anyway).

Stay tuned...