I felt this way about my current job.
Organizational issues make me want to drive off a cliff and I am very thorough like you are. I'm going to take a moment to vent like you. I love my job but it honestly drives me to drink some days/weeks.
Some of my favourite moments.
1. Having the fire alarm go off in the middle of my late med pass WHILE I am in the middle of giving report to paramedics. After I had wasted 45 minutes convincing the family that she needed to go yet again.
2. Transferring mx residents to hospital in a shift. Not as simple as it sounds. I probably have done mx assessments, VS, interventions, called the doctor, called the family for each resident and later complete thorough defensive charting. I always have to send in the middle of my AM med pass.
3. We have electronic MARs. They have gone down and we have had no back up paper MARs to replace them. I have no where to look to give a medication so I have to run meds from a hardwired computer on my orientation day. And then AM pass became Lunch pass. Then the oncoming shift complains that the med room is a mess, while raising their voice at you. You get to thank them by handing them freshly printed paper MARs that management has finally conjured at the end of YOUR shift.
4. I have just called 911 to send a resident to hospital. I have already printed off all the needed information.. Except our printers in the whole building are down and it didn't print. I have to write down all allergies, hx, meds given etc, personal info since I have no transfer papers. All while the paramedics stand there. You can forget about faxes or labs you are waiting to receive.
5. There comes transfer down the hall with a gurney for a resident who is leaving for dialysis. This is the first I've heard of this.
6. Fielding wars between staff or telling staff to do their jobs. Don't make me tell you to answer a bed alarm.... DON'T MAKE ME TELL YOU TWICE.
7. Family yelling at you for popping their loved one in isolation. Meanwhile, another patient dies in hospital from the flu.
8. Topping the worst possible day off: acutely confused sweet(now mean) lady suddenly spits crushed meds into your eyeballs.
The top three things that !@#$ me off:
1. Having a rainbow week where I work multiple(new) units. I have to send their residents to the hospital that should of been sent on a previous shift or days ago. I don't know the residents hx or baseline. They usually come back for kidney failure, urosepsis or some !@#$ing nonsense. I honestly feel like the angel of death. I can never trust judgement calls made by regular staff who KNOW their baseline- yet time and time again fail to act. I will see charting from days previous: confused this shift, lethargic this shift, vomiting+ lethargy for 4 days in a row yet NO ONE HAS REASSESSED, DONE VITALS OR FOLLOWED UP. They passed the buck. If I am filling in on a unit I should not be cleaning it up.
2. Running out of vital supplies like MOM, butterflies, I'm not even going to make a list. Having to waste 30 minutes looking for things that aren't in the building. Having simple things like oximetry or the unit's stethoscope go missing. Repeatedly interrupting your med pass to restock the med cart with insulins, puffers, boost, needles, look for missing meds or clarifying orders.
3. Processing orders that have been put off for no reason. I don't have TIME to put in YOUR APPROVED admission orders that I see timestamped as received at 1700 LAST NIGHT. Having to fix wrongly inputted orders. Pharmacy calling me to reinput orders that people randomly d/c. Going through 2 years of orders to clarify redundant, irrelevant, incorrect or unclear orders. Missed orders.
I still love my job. But the extra nonsense and disorganization... I deal with things you describe every day, throughout my day. I can deal with it because I stuck through it and now organize/cluster my care. (Although I fully support and agree with your decision to quit). When you don't know the residents, don't know the meds/treatments I know how impossible... and potentially unsafe.. it is to deal with. I just do the best that I can and prioritize.
