To start, I'm a spanking new Infection Preventionist of a prominent, 5-star, non-profit 200+ bed SNF located on the water in Seattle. Plucked from the floor a little less than a year ago, I have been thrown into the role of IP... and staff development... and writing ROP policy... and NAC manager... and incident reports... and employee health... essentially immersed in the woes of all nursing home IPs around the country as a "spare part nurse manager."
But life at the Home isn't so bad. At first glance, I thought I had won the lottery amongst my other floor nurses. I get a free management lunch. I make my own schedule (10-6). I have admin perks and only have to be on call once every 5-6 weeks. I have a company phone. I wear fancy clothes and sit in meetings and write passive aggressive emails.
So I go to work, day after day, and the months roll on with some days better than others. And as the days go by, everything makes a little more sense, I am filled with more and more anxiety, and I start doing my job. I pore over urine C/S reports and hound nurses for allowing frivolous antibiotic starts. I develop a non-threatening way to remind Housekeeping to not wear gloves in the hallways. I battle with upper admin about hand hygiene (amongst arguments of, its flammable! and, the dementia patients will eat it!) I educate residents, I educate staff, I educate myself. I check under the sheets and find kinks in catheter tubing. I remove foam and other non cleanable surfaces from the mechanical lifts. I kindly educate my docs about how no, we have never done airborne precautions in our nursing home and I kindly educate my staff that no, putting up a handwritten sign for airborne precautions does not mean that the room magically has negative air pressure capabilities. I convince Isabello (my favorite evening shift environmental services buddy) with simplified English to stop mixing bleach into his bucket of quatenary ammonium floor cleaner lest he dies of inhaling toxic substances.
I also snap at one of my most dependable nurses for running around without a mask on a confirmed flu unit.I also have a nervous breakdown in my car crying for 20 minutes when I find out that Social Services Dept. has moved yet another patient from quarantined unit to unquarantined unit in utter disorganized confusion. I also loudly and perhaps slightly unprofessionally lament in the break room. that I am quitting my job as IP tomorrow and my fellow nurse friends can find me at my new job at the local Walmart in the housewares section organizing pillows.
Don't get me wrong, I truly love my job. Because I know that preventing infection is the true ETHICS of healthcare. Everything else is just PR and fluff. 5 stars don't mean much if when your loved one enters my facility, and I have a part in making them sicker than before they got here. And we know clinicians that sometimes, our patients don't really "get it." But that we usually do, even though we are tired, overworked, and over stressed humans.
All human systems easily fall apart. Whatever clinical role you are in, be resilient. As one famous TV doctor once said, "There is no justice in this world, but there is mercy, because we give that to each other." I try to remember these words when I make eye contact and smile to staff in the hallways, when I answer a call light for a resident that really needs to pee and has been waiting for 30 minutes, when I get yelled at by an angry rabid family member, when I feel like it is just TOO MUCH! IP or not, clinicians must know the light in themselves to shine on the light in others.
