deToxTech

First call you get is from your supervisor telling you "Assessments just called. Make sure you guys get your timeclock adjustment forms."

so how do you handle losing your job for being on the periphery of a hospital *****?

How do you handle losing a job? I'm fortunate that I was able to pick something up shortly thereafter (doesn't pay nearly enough but I have a very supportive family) so I have something to cover the "gap" in employment. But I've just been so down on the whole thing ever since. Had to move back home and readjust alot of things. It's not like I was a bad employee-obviously i wasn't perfect if i lost my job-but I feel like I did more than my part and simply got caught up in an inevitable bad situation that resulted in a massive clear-cutting of employees; techs and nurses alike. Some of whom should have been gone since way back, some of whom shouldn't have been touched. I still keep in contact with my former charge nurse and some of my coworkers. Apparently things really haven't improved any since, so in many ways it was a blessing that I got out when i did. But i've been having a hard time coping with the fact that I got let go after I worked so hard to become a productive and effective employee. Never had any complaints from my co-workers, never had any write-ups or black marks on my record (save one from a crazy nurse who wrote up EVERYONE). I got my work done efficiently on a regular basis and made my part of the unit run as smoothly as can be expected. I thought I was a golden child. And one night, things went to hell in a handbasket and next week I was terminated for not doing rounds. No warning, no write up, no nothing. I still have good recommendations from my charge nurse and my night-supervisor. Both of whom have informed me this is just standard practice at this place-fire anyone who might endanger the hospital in a lawsuit and minimize collateral damage. But that doesn't help me in not feeling like a total failure. Yes, i screwed up, but what am i supposed to do now? And as of late, some of my immediate family has used this as grounds for saying I shouldn't go into nursing which only furthers my feelings. I don't know-there are valid reasons to be fired and there are unvalid reasons to be fired. On the one hand, I feel like I should have been given a warning or a write-up in my permanent record. On the other hand, if i flop once, what's to prevent me from flopping a second time? Or a third? And at what point do I become one of those people who should have been tossed a long time ago? I'm sure there are people here who have experienced one or the other. How do you handle the loss of a job, regardless of whether it was validated or not?

place i used to work was real good about slash and burn policies whenever managerial incompetence was the cause of a possible legality. Didn't matter how good an employee you might have been to the company or how long you'd been there-if they wanted you out, they'd find a way. Usually saying you weren't keeping up with your 15min checks. And it usually took an act of god (i.e. multiple physicians) or selling your soul to the devil (does this really need explaining?) to keep your job there. Then again, as long as you were really lucky and never had any accidents during your shift, you were unnoticed. And as far as being recognized for excellent service, the only people who ever seemed to be were those closest with the day mngt. I'm glad I'm not there anymore. I miss the pay to a certain degree, but I don't miss the hypocrisy. I do get to talk to my old coot of charge nurse from time to time (he's an awesome man). And my night supervisor makes a wonderful reference.

Then what happens to nurse hammer?

I got really confused once when i had to do an ekg on a guy missing a leg. I'm standing there with the leads going "where do i put the LF lead (left foot) when he doesn't have a left foot?" I also remember doing his belongings search asking "why on god's green earth does this man not have any matching socks?!" I felt like an idiot.

i think alot of it has to do with the philosophy of medicine being a path of healing. that's what we've all grown up knowing-drs and nurses make people get better. They don't just "let" ppl die. as such, there's also a legal fear-a doc who lets their patient die, well that just conjurs up all kinds of negatively charged images. and alot of it is fear,i think. not wanting to be without the person-at least as long as they're alive and the family is doing their part to keep them alive, they don't have to deal with the loss or the guilt of loss. but ppl who've worked with death and dying and the deteriorating aspects of human health know there's an difference between existence and really living. Personally, if i'm a potato connected to a machine, i'm not living. Put me down.

YES! God I loved not having to even acknowledge the management as I oozed into my car and muttered "i guess i'm gonna miss that meeting on the new cafeteria scheduling... :D"

I got smacked around aaaaall the time when i started working with one particular charge nurse. She already had a tech she'd been working with since time in-memorium and I was the new fish. I got blistered so many times it wasn't even funny. Charts not being stuffed enough, charts being too stuffed, not doing rounds, not staying in the the nurse's station-I really could NOT win. And I left too many times feeling like I was gonna stroke. Don't get me wrong, I was blistered by other nurses when I slacked off-either by accident or my my own guilt and I often times would thank them for the lesson because they were teaching me how to play the game. But that one nurse in particular... I think the final straw was when she wrote me up for not doing charting one night because i spent all my time with a patient who was trying to die on me (coffeeground puke and sudden blanching) since the minute he stepped foot on the unit and I was the only tech on the %^&* floor and chewed me out in front of the patients the minute i stepped foot on the unit. Am I venting too much? The only way I was able to cope was when I made a friend with another charge nurse who I felt i had a connection to-he was an odd bird. deep into history and ww2 facts and regalia. but we had a connection and I took to him like a mentor. And I think he was happy to have someone listen to his ramblings and take his little pearls of wisdom when he had them. I still left that place feeling like I was going to explode and try and take as many people with me as possible, but having a few colleagues who i could relate to took the edge off the abuse.

Ok. Here's something I'd like to know just as a general "get to know you" sort of thread. When I first started working as a tech after i graduated I enjoyed being able to work the 3-11 shift. It was a nice change from the random hours i'd worked as a part timer mall slave during my college years. and i'm not a morning person anyway-being able to wake up around noon and go to work at 2 and NOT hit rush hour was an absolute blessing to me. Of course, money became a priority so i would pick up any shift i could. I was PRN and the place where I worked (at the time) had no compunctions about letting anyone work almost as many hours as they could cram in as long as you didn't break the 20hr a shift rule and you weren't full time (didn't figure THAT one out til much later-joke's on me i suppose) and I discovered I needed at least 8 full hours between shifts (yeah, sleeping for 5 hrs and then going back for any amount of time was not only murder, it was vocational suicide) and finally figured out 12 hr shifts over night were PERFECT. It gave me enough time to go home and sleep and then go back to work and the shift differential didn't hurt either. Except for the few times I signed up for 60 hours in a week and started losing all sense of time, I've always enjoyed the night shifts. I simply had to make sure my patients were asleep at the assigned time and then worry about charts, admissions, and rounds. Except for the hell nights when we'd get 7 or 8 admissions in the course of 5 hours, I rather enjoyed myself. I've now taken on a position as a sort of tech at a special education clinic and have had to go back to the day walker lifestyle (although i find myself able to live with myself alot better regarding the care of the kids than my previous patients) but I have never gotten over how great it was to work overnight. So, after that long and windy introduction, what shifts do you ladies and gentlemen enjoy working and why? I'm sure there are a few good stories.

to the lady with the potato. i... honestly was at a loss for words. I mean. I just spent three minutes cringing at my computer screen. Oh god. Just .... oh god :chair: hm. most digusting thing i ever saw, besides the time I accidentally gave a guy a cup that he'd peed in without my knowledge, was this geri pt. First time working overnight on geri (i got floated to numberous units), didn't really know what to expect. The other tech had taken a break so i was picking up his 15 min checks. There was an elderly man at the end of the hall who was confused, but for the most part not troublesome. I made my final walk down the hall and caught a really odd odor. Made a very quick u-turn without even bothering to check (I was new-what do you want?) and told the tech we might need to check out this last room. The man had gotten up and peed. And pooped. But not the toilet. Oh no. And not in his bed. Oh no no, that'd be too cool. No, this man had taken time to pee and poop in his bedside cabinet. And, whether it was for symmetry or just plain confusion, i'll never know, he peed and pooped in the other cabinet (two bed room-he was the only occupant) And it was like .... he peed in the upright cabinet/closets because they looked like urinals and then took his time to defecate in each drawer of the cabinet underneath. like stagnant pools of swamp-diarhea.... mixed with urine. And all the other tech could say while we and one of the med nurses mopped, was "who sh!t$ in the cabinets? Honestly? Who DOES that? Who in their right mind has enough wherewithal to $h!t in the cabinets? Not just one, but both! And he knew which ones to pee in and which ones to crap in-WHO DOES THAT?" I was laughing and gagging at the same time. trial by excrement.

it's a shame that the bottom line is such a factor-but what do you think is the main cause of making healthcare so expensive? I don't think there are alot of people out there who would be willing to do such grueling work if it didn't pay some small dividend-so there's one aspect of it (then again, there is something to be said about working the job because it's a calling, not because of the money). What about HMOs? Bedside Lawyers and frivilous lawsuits? Drug Companies? Medical business people who realize that they can charge what they want because it's either health or death? what about the idea of medicine keeping people alive long after they should have died, driving up acuity? Or using resources tht could be dedicated elsewhere? Don't ask me for an example, i'm sure you can develope your own. not trying to change the topic as much as throwing out some other ideas as to wht might be causing the worsening conditions. yeah, understaffing is a pain-and every hospital out there is guilty of cutting corners to pad their budet. but there are ways that the medical field is its own worst enemy

yeah, there are alot of places that'll take you once you've started your first year of nursing school. but i still have AP2 and Micro (at least ) to take before i qualify to even apply for nursing school. I think i'm going to try and apply with children's but they have an awkward hire-rehire policy and i currently have to pay for both school tuition and my car payment. silly me

ok, we had a 65 year old alcoholic come in. first night, he was as lucid as could be. knew where he was, why he was there, his history as an airline pilot. etc. This would be the last night for the next 2 weeks. Every night he would get up about the same time, stumble into the day room (and he had NO business to walk-he was as stable as a warm jello mold) and demand why the hell we were in his house and where his dogs were and why he would be in such a place. two weeks. the only amusing part was in the beginning we were taking care of the poor guy and to encourage him to NOT get out of bed we gave him a urinal. The poor man also informed us how thirsty he was, so i gave him a cup of orange juice and a coffee lid over it (again, really shaky). So we went back in to check on him later on that night. Well, he was still really thirsty so i handed him his cup reminding him of his oj. "This doesnt taste like juice.... this tastes like salt water..." I looked at the other tech ... O_O and just calmly excused myself. I managed to make it to the bathroom before i fell on the floor laughing. the man had taken the coffee lid off the cup, peed in it, and replaced the lid. totally ignoring his urinal. and yeah. i just died right there. Thankfully I had a few days off before i had to see that man again.

after the 58th "suicide attempt" don't be suprised if the nurses don't take you as serious as you'd like. If you're gonna buy a gun to kill yourself, don't wait til you get home to realize you don't have any bullets. If you're gonna hotwire your mom's car and go joy riding without a license, learn the difference between brake and gas for when you see that cop parked on the side of the road. don't call your nurse a fascist @$$hole and then expect them to have your medication ready for you 30 minutes before call.