Yes, I had a lovely weekend, until Sunday morning. I woke up with horrible abdominal cramps and gas. Nothing happened, so I made a breakfast of oatmeal and coffee.
All Hades broke loose, literally and figuratively. I heard a horrible growl in my stomach. That's when the diarrhea started. Whatever I ate at the fast food joint (lovingly known as Jack in the Crack --chicken) or the swanky seafood house near the fancy hotel district (scallops), did me in. After that, it was body aches, fever and diarrhea after every drink. I stayed hydrated by drinking, then running into the bathroom once an hour. Gotta love foodborne illness, or at least that's what I suspect. Needless to say, I won't be volunteering to make anything for anyone for dinner or dessert for a while, just in case.
Since I felt lousy, I actually did something I am loathe to do: take a nap. It helped, but I eventually had to take Tylenol so my fever did not get above 102. Thankfully, it broke overnight and I've been afebrile all day. The nursing supervisor actually answered my call and my boss my text when I called.
I rested today. I felt bad in the morning, but got progressively better. My stomach is still undecided, but I'm sure when I get hungry enough, my appetite will be normal again.
Heck of a way to spend a Monday. More fun to come...stay tuned.
Showing posts with label supervisor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label supervisor. Show all posts
Monday, January 30, 2017
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
Dealing with the devil
Today, I was dealing with some of his minions.
Dahey, through no fault of his own, got a new-to-him employer. Nothing new, just one of the bonuses of working in his line of work.
Said employer, which I shall now call Highly & Grossly iLogical Inc. gave him a mandate to fill out all of the on-boarding paperwork this weekend. This meant I got to use my home printer and my own ream of paper for all the forms. No more print shop for these folks! No submitting online, either, because they require paper with signatures.
The e-mails were terse and there was a 27 point checklist, including boring stuff as insurance, training plan, and even their social media policy.
I knew they were high up on the illogical part, when Dahey called me, not once, not twice but three times in the last two days about insurance. As a regular employee at the Hotel (with good rates) I get it. Dahey filed the waiver and Highly Illogical Inc. sends several more terse e-mails saying, "What we had on the waiver is not good enough".
The waiver said to include your insurance information (written) and a screen shot of your information on the company website (with dependents, etc.) as your proof of enrollment.
The first screenshot was rejected because it didn't have a date on it.
The second screenshot was rejected because I couldn't screen capture the date on my desktop, so I took a picture with my phone and e-mailed that.
The third screenshot didn't have my name (but did have the date, insurance company and how many people I insured ).
Dahey was frazzled. I called the insurance company. The people who can send those "I have insurance" letters were gone for the day. They said they can send me one tomorrow when they return if I have a secure fax. It's in a room that locks (and we get patient info on it, so maybe it qualifies).
Finally, I hiked over six blocks to the other side of campus to see our HR department. They had never heard of such craziness (and I talked to six of them). One of the staffers (who handles insurance) gave me one of my official personnel record forms with my insurance election on it.
Since it does have sensitive data, I elected to go home and write an e-mail to the supervising (er, harassing) HR specialist at Illogical Inc. I put a read receipt on it so it would sound official (and hopefully, irritating).
Dear Mrs. Dick (not kidding- just slightly altered to protect the guilty):
Here are three screenshots that you rejected earlier today. I hope these are less blurry. I have another form that the Hotel has given me from my official record today, but as it has sensitive information, I cannot send it to you until I can get to a secure fax.
I will forward it and any other information to you tomorrow. My phone numbers are below. Please contact me directly, as I am the subscriber, not Dahey.
Please note: I may not answer your call immediately if I am caring for patients. Please leave a message and I will return your call as soon as I can.
RehabRN
Now I just hope that they stop harassing Dahey. I'm not getting very good vibes right now about Illogical. They won't like me if they continue to p*&s me off.
More later as the saga continues....
Dahey, through no fault of his own, got a new-to-him employer. Nothing new, just one of the bonuses of working in his line of work.
Said employer, which I shall now call Highly & Grossly iLogical Inc. gave him a mandate to fill out all of the on-boarding paperwork this weekend. This meant I got to use my home printer and my own ream of paper for all the forms. No more print shop for these folks! No submitting online, either, because they require paper with signatures.
The e-mails were terse and there was a 27 point checklist, including boring stuff as insurance, training plan, and even their social media policy.
I knew they were high up on the illogical part, when Dahey called me, not once, not twice but three times in the last two days about insurance. As a regular employee at the Hotel (with good rates) I get it. Dahey filed the waiver and Highly Illogical Inc. sends several more terse e-mails saying, "What we had on the waiver is not good enough".
The waiver said to include your insurance information (written) and a screen shot of your information on the company website (with dependents, etc.) as your proof of enrollment.
The first screenshot was rejected because it didn't have a date on it.
The second screenshot was rejected because I couldn't screen capture the date on my desktop, so I took a picture with my phone and e-mailed that.
The third screenshot didn't have my name (but did have the date, insurance company and how many people I insured ).
Dahey was frazzled. I called the insurance company. The people who can send those "I have insurance" letters were gone for the day. They said they can send me one tomorrow when they return if I have a secure fax. It's in a room that locks (and we get patient info on it, so maybe it qualifies).
Finally, I hiked over six blocks to the other side of campus to see our HR department. They had never heard of such craziness (and I talked to six of them). One of the staffers (who handles insurance) gave me one of my official personnel record forms with my insurance election on it.
Since it does have sensitive data, I elected to go home and write an e-mail to the supervising (er, harassing) HR specialist at Illogical Inc. I put a read receipt on it so it would sound official (and hopefully, irritating).
Dear Mrs. Dick (not kidding- just slightly altered to protect the guilty):
Here are three screenshots that you rejected earlier today. I hope these are less blurry. I have another form that the Hotel has given me from my official record today, but as it has sensitive information, I cannot send it to you until I can get to a secure fax.
I will forward it and any other information to you tomorrow. My phone numbers are below. Please contact me directly, as I am the subscriber, not Dahey.
Please note: I may not answer your call immediately if I am caring for patients. Please leave a message and I will return your call as soon as I can.
RehabRN
Now I just hope that they stop harassing Dahey. I'm not getting very good vibes right now about Illogical. They won't like me if they continue to p*&s me off.
More later as the saga continues....
Friday, February 15, 2013
Field trip!
I am one of those people who loves to get out of the Hotel and roam. Even if it's only to the cafeteria on a nice day.
Today was different. I had meetings at Washington (aka the Mothership).Since Bubba and Dahey were roaming around on RehabLand Elementary's February vacation (why they give kids a five day weekend in February...), I had them drop me off there and pick me up when I was done.
I was there and had 3 meetings with people in four hours. It wasn't too terrible, because I had time in between.
First, I had to meet with Dr. C. He's a surgeon our chief wanted me to talk to about the SU. Nice. He was a character, still in his OR cap, as if he'd just come from a case. Dr. C. is about 5 feet tall. In reality, I think he just wore it, so patients would think he was busy. For a surgeon, he was interesting. He sat next to me and looked me square in the eye when he talked, very unlike any of the other surgeons we work with.
Next, my old super, Reg, took care of me when I needed a computer to finish my work between one of those meetings. It was fun. He gave me his office on the unit in the middle of an allied health open house. Respiratory therapists and therapists of all stripes were being interviewed everywhere on that end of the building that's normally not occupied.
I visited Dr. V. next. He and I worked at Saintarama Rehab. We got assigned to the same committee for that reason. He's smart, but not a subject matter expert on this project, so that's why I'm with him. I started having flashbacks to undergrad when he started talking about SWOT analysis and Professor Brothers saying, "RehabRN, what are the opportunities for Company X?" Just as long as I don't have to take accounting again, I'm okay.
Finally, I visited the last person on our chief's list. The urologist. Everyone's favorite person among the male patients. A positive evaluation from him gets you the ED drug of your choice, based on your diagnosis. His waiting room was crowded. I was just shocked that he took time out to talk to me, along with his nurse.
Although I left later than I wanted, the diversion was worthwhile. Washington's coffee bar in the lobby has some really wonderful brownies. Yes, I was supposed to give up sweets for Lent, but I distinctly recall the priest saying, "Don't give up something you're just going to start again when Lent is over."
On my honor, I will never EVER give up chocolate. End of story.
Have a great weekend wherever you are!
Today was different. I had meetings at Washington (aka the Mothership).Since Bubba and Dahey were roaming around on RehabLand Elementary's February vacation (why they give kids a five day weekend in February...), I had them drop me off there and pick me up when I was done.
I was there and had 3 meetings with people in four hours. It wasn't too terrible, because I had time in between.
First, I had to meet with Dr. C. He's a surgeon our chief wanted me to talk to about the SU. Nice. He was a character, still in his OR cap, as if he'd just come from a case. Dr. C. is about 5 feet tall. In reality, I think he just wore it, so patients would think he was busy. For a surgeon, he was interesting. He sat next to me and looked me square in the eye when he talked, very unlike any of the other surgeons we work with.
Next, my old super, Reg, took care of me when I needed a computer to finish my work between one of those meetings. It was fun. He gave me his office on the unit in the middle of an allied health open house. Respiratory therapists and therapists of all stripes were being interviewed everywhere on that end of the building that's normally not occupied.
I visited Dr. V. next. He and I worked at Saintarama Rehab. We got assigned to the same committee for that reason. He's smart, but not a subject matter expert on this project, so that's why I'm with him. I started having flashbacks to undergrad when he started talking about SWOT analysis and Professor Brothers saying, "RehabRN, what are the opportunities for Company X?" Just as long as I don't have to take accounting again, I'm okay.
Finally, I visited the last person on our chief's list. The urologist. Everyone's favorite person among the male patients. A positive evaluation from him gets you the ED drug of your choice, based on your diagnosis. His waiting room was crowded. I was just shocked that he took time out to talk to me, along with his nurse.
Although I left later than I wanted, the diversion was worthwhile. Washington's coffee bar in the lobby has some really wonderful brownies. Yes, I was supposed to give up sweets for Lent, but I distinctly recall the priest saying, "Don't give up something you're just going to start again when Lent is over."
On my honor, I will never EVER give up chocolate. End of story.
Have a great weekend wherever you are!
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Just when you think you've seen everything...
Something completely different happens. We got a person who came onto the unit at the Hotel who asked to be "checked in" right at dinner time. Rehab is not a unit people just typically appear on, so this was the first red flag.
Patient then says, "Oh, I was over in the unit down the way over 10 years ago. Can I just go back?" Patient then describes an experience between psych and drug rehab (they mistake us all the time--no surprise when the word "rehab" is on the sign). I call the supervisor who asks me, "Do you think he's a mental health patient?" Yes, I reply without belying that the super has asked if he has suicidal ideation, which he did not.
Thankfully, I managed to get walk-on to the ER, where I later found out that he told them a different story. He was indeed suicidal, so he won a free trip to the psych unit. Not sure if he'll rehab or not at our lovely Hotel, but if he does, I'm sure he'll see the drug rehab folks, and not the physical rehab folks that I'm used to working with here on our unit.
Sometimes people just want to go home again at your hospital.
Stay tuned...
Patient then says, "Oh, I was over in the unit down the way over 10 years ago. Can I just go back?" Patient then describes an experience between psych and drug rehab (they mistake us all the time--no surprise when the word "rehab" is on the sign). I call the supervisor who asks me, "Do you think he's a mental health patient?" Yes, I reply without belying that the super has asked if he has suicidal ideation, which he did not.
Thankfully, I managed to get walk-on to the ER, where I later found out that he told them a different story. He was indeed suicidal, so he won a free trip to the psych unit. Not sure if he'll rehab or not at our lovely Hotel, but if he does, I'm sure he'll see the drug rehab folks, and not the physical rehab folks that I'm used to working with here on our unit.
Sometimes people just want to go home again at your hospital.
Stay tuned...
Sunday, February 27, 2011
From the mouths of supervisors...
Ever had a supervisor who was just too chummy? We do.
Here are a few snippets of conversations he/she had on our unit recently (sex changed to protect the guilty).
"Can I have a bite of your cookie?" Super #1
Hello, we have a whole box in the break room...do you really love this nurse that much? Yuck!
"I shake everyone's hand." Super #2
My favorite charge nurse also stated that Super #2 also shook patient hands and was not always seen doing hand hygiene.
Thanks for the tip, FCN! I gel in and gel out, and wash in between for that very reason. No offense. I've just felt sick for weeks and don't want to share or get anything else.
Stay tuned...you never know what they'll say next.
Here are a few snippets of conversations he/she had on our unit recently (sex changed to protect the guilty).
"Can I have a bite of your cookie?" Super #1
Hello, we have a whole box in the break room...do you really love this nurse that much? Yuck!
"I shake everyone's hand." Super #2
My favorite charge nurse also stated that Super #2 also shook patient hands and was not always seen doing hand hygiene.
Thanks for the tip, FCN! I gel in and gel out, and wash in between for that very reason. No offense. I've just felt sick for weeks and don't want to share or get anything else.
Stay tuned...you never know what they'll say next.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Stormy weekend? Perhaps not...
So maybe we won't have a stormy moon at our place this weekend...why you ask?
Let me count the ways...
1. We lost some patients. Spring has sprung and they'll do anything to get discharged or go on pass for the weekend. I love that part of spring!
2. The supervisors are not micromanaging at the moment. It helps that a few just got back from vacations in the tropics watching baseball and getting a tan. Want to divert them from looking at your drink at the nurses' station? Just ask them about spring training and who they saw.
3. Some of the drama mamas won't be working this weekend due to illness or vacation. At least they can go nuts at home with their families, and not with us!
I'd say the q-word, but I'm not going to jinx it....stay tuned!
Let me count the ways...
1. We lost some patients. Spring has sprung and they'll do anything to get discharged or go on pass for the weekend. I love that part of spring!
2. The supervisors are not micromanaging at the moment. It helps that a few just got back from vacations in the tropics watching baseball and getting a tan. Want to divert them from looking at your drink at the nurses' station? Just ask them about spring training and who they saw.
3. Some of the drama mamas won't be working this weekend due to illness or vacation. At least they can go nuts at home with their families, and not with us!
I'd say the q-word, but I'm not going to jinx it....stay tuned!
Monday, December 29, 2008
Ack!
Nothing like calling in on a Monday morning. The supervisor didn't sound too thrilled, but then again, it's sucks when 1) you've hacked and coughed green stuff all night, 2) you can't talk and 3) you ache so bad you feel as if you've just completed an assignment with 3- 300+ lb. tetraplegic patients.
Back to bed for me...more later.
Back to bed for me...more later.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Heard on the unit...
Yes, I haven't had an installment of this in a while, so here goes...
"I'm so happy to see your smiling face." Mr. J.
Some people love to see you come back to work. Others...well, they aren't exactly thrilled. Mr. J. is a riot and he's always got a funny perspective on things. I think some of that has to do with his previous job--police detective.
"It really smells down here." Nursing supervisor last night when he was on the unit.
"That's the smell of success." Yours truly (RehabRN)
Yes, it's not really a secret, but to all of you nursing students going to rehab, especially with SCI patients, evening shifts tend to be...shall we say, aromatic. Many patients who do active rehab have bowel programs in the evenings, usually immediately (30-60 minutes) following dinner. The reason? This allows the patients to get the most out of therapy, particularly, in terms of time, since while nurses work 24/7, therapists do not. Most of them work the day shift Monday through Friday and usually they rotate the weekends, where they work a max of four to eight hours, depending on the rules of the unit, etc.
If you smell something, that means we have people with good, working bowels. If they're consistent, this also means that they won't have accidents in between, either and will get the most out of therapy. We start everyone on bowel routines daily, and then after two weeks, they will move to qod (or every other day). Some people do well like that, and if that doesn't work, they stay on a daily schedule.
"I don't know what her (MD's) rationale is, but I'm getting out of here on Monday." Mr. R.
I admitted this guy on Tuesday. Sure he's in for a short trip, but for some reason, we get a lot of patients who get sick once they arrive and then they have to stay with us. Mr. R. is very impatient to leave, which is pretty unusual for most of our patients. We tend to keep people a long time.
"I'm so happy to see your smiling face." Mr. J.
Some people love to see you come back to work. Others...well, they aren't exactly thrilled. Mr. J. is a riot and he's always got a funny perspective on things. I think some of that has to do with his previous job--police detective.
"It really smells down here." Nursing supervisor last night when he was on the unit.
"That's the smell of success." Yours truly (RehabRN)
Yes, it's not really a secret, but to all of you nursing students going to rehab, especially with SCI patients, evening shifts tend to be...shall we say, aromatic. Many patients who do active rehab have bowel programs in the evenings, usually immediately (30-60 minutes) following dinner. The reason? This allows the patients to get the most out of therapy, particularly, in terms of time, since while nurses work 24/7, therapists do not. Most of them work the day shift Monday through Friday and usually they rotate the weekends, where they work a max of four to eight hours, depending on the rules of the unit, etc.
If you smell something, that means we have people with good, working bowels. If they're consistent, this also means that they won't have accidents in between, either and will get the most out of therapy. We start everyone on bowel routines daily, and then after two weeks, they will move to qod (or every other day). Some people do well like that, and if that doesn't work, they stay on a daily schedule.
"I don't know what her (MD's) rationale is, but I'm getting out of here on Monday." Mr. R.
I admitted this guy on Tuesday. Sure he's in for a short trip, but for some reason, we get a lot of patients who get sick once they arrive and then they have to stay with us. Mr. R. is very impatient to leave, which is pretty unusual for most of our patients. We tend to keep people a long time.
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