Last week I rotated to a new unit as registry. I have been going to this facility for several months and been treated pretty good, although you know how it goes in registry. The rent-a-scrub pretty much gets slammed and this day was no different.
4 pretty high acuity patients without a CNA. Charge Nurse did not wear a badge or welcome me to the unit. I requested a brief orientation from a friendly looking person in scrubs (again no name tag or ID) and was told they were new there themselves.
Got a really crummy shift report from off going, lot's of holes to be patched, new orders to be noted and carried out from the evening shift prior. Kinda had that crawling skin syndrome but tried really hard to make the best of it.
Finally discovered who the CN was when she chewed me out at the nurses station for not carrying out an MD order that had been placed in my mailbox half and hour earlier ... ( I had a mailbox????) All day long I fel like I had one foot on a banana peel and the other stuck in gum.
Vital signs, call lites, feeders, daily weights, I and O's and still no idea where the linen was stored. Pretty frustrating experience and still I don't know who the heck anyone is since no one wore their ID badge.
Well, end of my shift rolls around and once again I get bashed by the CN for not charting something that seems to be specific to that particular unit. I put in some OT, which I ate since this facility doesn't like to pay for it, charted like crazy and got the heck outta there.
I related this train wreck to my agency and they were very sympathetic to my plight but told me this facility was very "fragile " as far as an account goes and one "bad apple" like me could upset the entire cart.
I am scheduled to go back next week for 3 days and am dreading a repeat performance. I'm actually interested in hiring on with this place, overall I like it and perhaps I would carry a little more weight if I was a staffer.
I thought Charges were chosen for their tact, diplomacy and ability to coordinate he running of the unit. All she seemed to want to do was run me into the ground. When I asked for help I was literally ignored, the blank looks on anyones faces I was tempted to check em for a pulse.
A one point I asked a CNA if she would do me a "hugie" meaning a favor by getting a set of vitals on a new post op that had just arrived while I was obtaing MD orders. She full on turned me down! She said "NO!, I am not your CNA, I have 5 of my own patients to take care of" and then went to the lounge for some much needed R and R.
It was no fun, lemme tell ya. For any kind responders who would advise that I run fast and far from this facility I can say that RN jobs are drying up here in OC despite what the media would want you to believe. It is competetive and the more experienced wheel does not get the grease. In fact you can't swing a dead cat here in orange County without hitting a nurse, and the schools are cranking them out or importing them from other countries faster than you can say "Super size it Shirley"
I see the trend and it sees me. thanks for letting me vent.
If you're as fantastic a nurse as you are a writer, I suggest that you leave the hospital, take an easy home-care case, and write full-time.
PS And if you decide you must stay in a hospital and want to try registry here in Florida, just let me know.
Goofy huh! I had a teacher in high school who used to tell me the same thing. I adore pouring it out and putting paper to pen but in the looooong run, and let's face it kids, nursing is truly a young person's game, I would miss the fresh input from the life experience. Did you read my post about my recent pelvic exam in the thread "this is why is rarely go in for physicals"? I
read that and had to respond.
I would adore being able to write from the trenches and put faces and names to the brave soldiers who blindly serve and then return home to clean the cat box, battle with telemarketers and still wrench enoughh creativity to figure out that Hamburger Helper does just fine on it's own.
Forunately or not, I have warnings on many of my posts for pouring out controversy that seems funny at the time, musta been the fentanyl! BTW Angio, your screen name is a stitch!
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Haunted
522 Posts
Goofy huh! I had a teacher in high school who used to tell me the same thing. I adore pouring it out and putting paper to pen but in the looooong run, and let's face it kids, nursing is truly a young person's game, I would miss the fresh input from the life experience. Did you read my post about my recent pelvic exam in the thread "this is why is rarely go in for physicals"? I
read that and had to respond.
I would adore being able to write from the trenches and put faces and names to the brave soldiers who blindly serve and then return home to clean the cat box, battle with telemarketers and still wrench enoughh creativity to figure out that Hamburger Helper does just fine on it's own.
Forunately or not, I have warnings on many of my posts for pouring out controversy that seems funny at the time, musta been the fentanyl! BTW Angio, your screen name is a stitch!