Sorry for coming here to release my stress on something that isn't exactly "nursing" related but is "Job related" and I'm a nurse so thats a link...Right??? With that justification I figured, why not, maybe it will help me to feel better.... so I can go scrub my floor or something... and here I am.
I have recently experienced a family tragedy. My sister dies of cancer (Metastatic Cardiac Sarcoma) which in its self is difficult enough. However, this happened at the end of my "off time" and I was scheduled to work Thurs. thru Tues to cover my two weeks of shifts. Needless to say I missed two weeks of work in only 6 days totaling 72 hours. The hospital where I work offers 22 hours of bereavement pay (we work 12 hours shifts so that isn't even 2 full shifts???) and I did have friends from my unit donate PTO to me which totaled 10 hours to add to my 25 I already had saved up. I am eternally grateful to these wonderful friends who have given when they didn't need to and it does help to know you have friends like that. However, that only covered 57 of my 72 hours missed. I don't want to seem ungrateful though and want everyone to realize I know that was a HUGE help. But, now the "adding insult to injury" part!!!
We have to put in for our summer vacation time early in the year (like most hospital employees do I am sure) and as luck would have it we planned to take our family vacation this week (which with the current situation we are not going anywhere now) so I am again missing another week of work directly after getting back from my sisters funeral with no PTO to cover it. That is 3 weeks gone. I have put up request to call me if help is needed to fill shifts but again.... luck has not been on my side and we are actually in low-census this week so others are on-call already and extra employees is definitely not needed. I guess you can see where my stress my be a little high. I did manage to get 5 hours of work this week by offering to teach a BLS class on Thursday though, so I will only be short another 31 hours on my next pay check. That's one way to look at it right?
I am by nature a positive person and generally am able to let things roll and know they will eventually work themselves out given time. I know this will too in time be okay. It is just difficult to sit home, desperately miss my sister and also be trying to figure out where Peter lives so I can rob him to pay Paul.
Alright, like I said, this has NOTHING to do with nursing and may not have been something to post here at Allnurses.com but I have felt this is where my peers live but yet not the ones I work with (try to keep home and work separate ya know...) so figured I would give it a shot to see if it set my mind a little more at ease.
Desperate times call for desperate measures huh???
Hey rags... sorry about the loss of your sister, i don't remember you saying what type of facillity you work in, if your in a hospital maybe you could call staffing and ask them to put you in another dept. My prayers are with you during such a difficult time.:redbeathe
Thank you so much for the wonderful ideas Dixielee, keeping my mind occupied is a wonderful idea. After venting here and feeling all the warmth that came with the responses did make me feel better. I never did mop that kitchen floor as I planned, but I did go out side and pull a ton of weeds and then went for a nice walk with my husband. SO therapeutic!!!
I appreciate all the warm wishes and hugs I have received from everyone here. It is difficult enough to deal with the loss of my sister. She didn't have to suffer long and that I am thank full for. It was a total of 3 months from diagnosis to death. We were able to see her and say our good buys while she was still able to do things with us and that was truly a gift that many don't have before they lose someone.
Thank you thank you thank you to everyone!!! I have decided it was a good idea to come and vent here. You are all wonderful!!!
nursebabygirl 08
116 Posts
Hey rags... sorry about the loss of your sister, i don't remember you saying what type of facillity you work in, if your in a hospital maybe you could call staffing and ask them to put you in another dept. My prayers are with you during such a difficult time.:redbeathe