Davey Do

Geez, I empathize with you, Stillcrazyafteralltheseyears! It amazes me how some can work in this environment and still function. I doff my proverbial hat to you for lasting a decade! Some can do it and float on through life without their mental health being affected. Rooty Payne, a psych tech I worked with at Wrongway is an example. Rooty has worked in the DOC and in psych for decades and is an outstanding individual. My little sister Cat worked with the DD population in a Hell Hole for 30 years before she passed away. She was a great person, one that I said was "A Cat who herded cats". When I asked Rooty and Cat how they did it, they both gave me the same answer: "I don't let it bother me." Wow. Just: wow.

Yeah, easing into creative pursuits is a process, that's for sure, JBMom. When I was younger and still had a lot of bills to pay, I would make due the best that I could. For example, back in the late '90's, I remember working on my '85 Toyota pickup, putting in a new starter on a Sunday which I had to have running the next day in order to drive it to work. I said to myself, "Someday I'm going to own something that I don't have to work on, but work on it for pleasure". Sure enough in '09, I bought a '51 Chevy pickup that was totalled in '11 and I spent the next 3 1/2 years resurrecting it. I thought I had found my hobby, completely taking apart an antique vehicle, repairing it, and putting it back together again. But no. I tinkered with it a bit last Summer, got it running again for the upteenth time, and drove it around a bit, but it's not my main creative pursuit. I've always done art, so I immersed myself into art after I retired. I now have enough wood, metal, and plastic sculptures, signs, and paintings to do a show if I want. My last show was in '03. I have learned animation which encompasses sketching, sculpting, painting, photography, digital, and computer art. Art is my creative pursuit, every day, up to 12 hours a day. I would highly advise anybody considering retirement to try out any and all creative endeavors and to find something now that they absolutely love doing.

We see our lives as a series of events and relay those events of our life to others in story form which always has a beginning. One year ago on this date, an major event in my life began when I pushed over the first domino, causing a chain reaction, which led to my termination two months later. If I could have generally known the series of events that were to take place due to pushing over that first domino, would I have decided otherwise? If I could have generally known that what working as a nurse would be like in 1982, would I still have chosen to go for my LPN license over of my paramedic certification? What is a pivotal first domino pushing over nursing point in your life? If you generally knew beforehand the series of events that were to take place in your nursing career, do you think you would have chosen to push over a different row of dominoes?

As an artist, the one thing that is my constant pursuit is inspiration. Appreciation, adoration, adulation, and monetary compensation are nice, but they don't feed the monkey. Sooooooooo I'm posing a challenge to my virtual friends, @NurseBlaq @TriciaJ @Daisy4RN, @caliotter3 @sirI @Hoosier_RN @nursel56 @NRSKarenRN and good ole @GrumpyRN and I've put off doing this for quite some time, and that is to challenge me to make art with something that you may believe I cannot. After I read this quote by Andre Breton back in '03, I needed to prove to myself that I wasn't an idiot.

I am happy to hear you're back at work and healthily dialyzing patients, Hoosier, and I'm sorry to hear about the stressors. I don't know if working at Walmart that would change things all that much. I was in Walmart the other day when some older employee was barking directions at a young employee who responded respectfully. Walmart takes those CLEAN UP ON AISLE THREEs pretty seriously.

Back in the late '90's, as a community nurse for the ACT (assertive community treatment) team, I would visit the patients who I normally saw in the community if they were admitted as inpatients. One patient that I had known for about 15 years had been admitted for a suicide attempt. The patient was informing me of the precipitating reasons for the psych admission: "I thought I was taking cyanide, but it turned out to be Countrytime Lemonade." I empathetically replied, "Yeah, I get those two mixed up also".

"The fear of bananas on board seems to have its origins in the 1700s, when the Caribbean trade was in full swing. It was believed that boats carrying bananas had to move quickly to deliver the fruits before they spoiled, leaving little to no time for fishermen to troll for fish." Thank goodness nowadays we have Flying Fruit Baskets!

Back in July of '16, my medical nurse wife Belinda rented us a cabin in the foothills of Missouri in order to celebrate our wedding anniversary. I wore a pair of jeans and an old scrub top for the long drive. We had just unpacked when Belinda said, "Let's take a walk down to the river". We were walking down the gravel path with a slight slight decline when Belinda's right leg slid out from under her and she landed on her bottom. "Here- I'll help you up", I said. Belinda replied, in her calm, usual manner, "I think I broke my ankle". Sure enough, she had fractured her tibia and required an ORIF. After my retirement last Spring, I let my old scrubs hang in my closet. Last Fall, I decided to wear one of my scrub tops. That night, I had to take Belinda into the ER for what was diagnosed as cholecystitis. I made note of this to Belinda, that the two times I had worn scrub tops outside of work, she had to go to the ER. "I'm not going to wear my scrub tops any more", I said. "Please don't ", she replied. Got superstitions?

Back in the mid '80's, a psychiatrist said, "If you don't laugh you will cry" when we read an article in the local newspaper. A former recidivistic patient who had a diagnosis of Bipolar D/O with Psychotic Features announced that they were opening a clinic with some kind of wonderfully majestic therapy that was guaranteed to to help others find mental health.

Thank you for asking, prettyheadache- they are long, long story with twists and turns fraught with convoluted motives. However, both stories can all be summed up by saying those in charge put personalities before principles.

As an LPN in 1989, I saw that I made $8.99/hr and as an RN in 1990 I saw that I made $12.35/hr. I said, "Now I understand why I became an RN!"

We should always keep expectations low, Sour Lemon. That way, we pessimists are never disappointed.

Or unfounded, EDNURSE; not based in reality as evidenced by the previous post. More people die in MVAs than they do spiders or snakes, yet we will regularly subject ourselves to road hazards, on a nearly daily basis, while we make sure the exterminator makes his regular visits.

A lot of threads here on allnurses are generated by members due to fears. Fears due to recrimination and subsequent retaliation, fear of losing face, fear of being terminated, and the be-all and end-all fear of losing one's license. In the nursing profession, losing one's job or license is akin to death, as if saying, "I was employed but now I'm jobless. I was a nurse, but now I've lost my license. I was alive but now I'm dead." In one study of fears, death was listed as the number one fear and loss of livelihood was listed as the fourth most feared. We can't escape death, but we do have some semblance of control in putting it off for a while. We don't have full control over being terminated, however, we can take measures to lessen the chances of that happening. I was fired from four facilities over my four decade career, not counting a demotion. The first time, I openly wept during the execution. The fourth time was a minor blow to my abdomen, knocking the wind out of me for the moment. Desensitization does work wonders. The closest my person has been to death was at the age of 19 when I experienced an NDE after an MVA. It has been said that an NDE is like visiting a neighborhood yet not residing there. My experience has lessened my fear of death, somewhat. Woody Allen said something along the lines of, "I'm not afraid of death. I just don't want to be there when it happens". I fear living in pain more so than I fear death. Jung said something along the lines of, and again I believe I'm paraphrasing, "Embrace your fears, for there your soul will grow". I took that to mean that if we face our fears, we will be wiser and stronger beings. My signature line is, once again a paraphrased quote, made by Edgar Cayce: "Overcome fear by seeing the ridiculous, yet funny side to every situation". I feel and believe that I have a good sense of humor, and I use it to my advantage whenever I can in an attempt to face my fears hoping that my soul may grow. Got fears?

I was terminated from a community mental health clinic after five tears for "Not fulfilling the responsibilities of (my) position". IDES ruled the termination was unfair and I received unemployment benefits. When I applied to another community mental health clinic for a position as NS over medical services and methadone clinic, the administrator and HR director asked me, "Why did you leave your last position?" I replied, "It was a consensual agreement", which was true- we both didn't want me working there. I got the job and worked there for a year when I was, once again, fired. Wrongway Regional Medical Center was having a job fair and nurses who merely filled out an application got a $50 gift certificate. The director of psych services sat down with me as filled out the job application and asked me, "Why did you leave your last position?" I replied, "I got fired". I worked at Wrongway for seventeen years before I got fired.

Eiffel, Ill. is the town where Mixed Nuts Mental Health Systems and Wrongway Regional Medical Center are located. I worked for Mixed Nuts for five years and Wrongway for seventeen, so for 22 years, I drove basically the same route, perpendicularly underpassing a major interstate route in Illinois & Missouri. For years, just about every time I saw that major interstate route appear on the horizon, I fantasized about chucking it all, veering off, and taking that route, morelostthanfound. Until I found my bliss. In Joseph Campbell's book The Power of Myth, discussing Sacrifice and Bliss, he sites the last line of Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt, “I’ve never done a thing I wanted to in all my life.” Joseph Campbell says in order to not feel as Babbitt did, we have to follow our bliss: "Namely, that if you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you’re living somehow. And well, you can see it. You begin to deal with people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss, and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be." Find and follow your bliss, morelostthanfound. The very best to you.

In the USA, anywhere from five to seven people per year die from spider or snake bites or bites from reptiles, like alligators. I could find no cause of deaths attributed to drinking someone else's coffee. There are approximately 615 boating deaths per year. However, in the USA, every year approximately 38,000 people die in MVAs and approximately 115 million people in the USA drive a car every day. I fear the nut behind the wheel and I am not afraid of "spiders and snakes 'cause that ain't what it takes to love me", Jim Stafford.

From my experience in working in community mental health clinics which also offered medical interventions, I'd say your experience was pretty much par for the course, RNShushain. It seems that these clinics have the bare bones of staff and equipment and expect the employees to turn the water into wine. Only you can answer this question. However, given your desires to advance yourself in experience and education, clinics are not always the best facilities in which to do so. It seems that once the duties and responsibilities are learned and become proficient, more work is delegated. And the work is not all that involved and technical, it merely requires one with good time management skills and a license. In my six years of experiences at two community clinics, I was a community nurse, carried a large caseload, initiated and ran two medication programs, reviewed patient assessments, acted as the PAS and Mandated Follow-Up agent for the southern region of the county, assisted the psychiatrist in numerous ways, supervised Medical Services and the Methadone Clinic, gave two hour lectures twice a week for court-ordered drug abusers, administered decanoate injections, attended staffings & other meetings, covered for the LPNs when they were off, and other duties that I don't recall at this time or were as required. What a run-on sentence that was! Good luck to you, RNShushain!

...and I will never be heard from again!

"Complaining too much" is relative, however, it does make for interesting threads. By calling attention attention to ourselves, in raising debates, we feel like we're more in control. We feel as though we possess power over situations and others. We set the scene, stir a pot, then sit back and and watch the goings-on. And, if we're @NurseBlaq, we bring popcorn. And, we are sure we don't forget to bring the ginger ale. To some, myself included, nursing is/was a life calling. I was a nurse 24/7 365 and felt good about it. Should a situation arise, I would be a nurse again. Although retired, my license is current. My unsolicited advice, DK, is to embrace your position and revel within it. That is all. For now.

I am seeing a fear that you have, JBMom, merely by your actions. Or should I say, "inactions"?

YES! Thought, when I Googled fisherman superstitions, sure enough bananas were on the list! Wow! Is that cool, or what?

Had something similar happen to me at Wrongway Regional Medical Center, sans the union rep since they're not union. The incident occurred in July and the meeting didn't happen until October. Basically, Wrongway had been dinged by some surveying or bulldog entity for safety matter infractions and was proving proactivity in rectifying minor offenses. So I was called to HR along with my supervisor for propping open a nurses station door. The meeting was like something from the Arlo Guthrie classic, Alice's Restaurant: "...The 27 eight-by-ten color glossy pictures With the circles and arrows And a paragraph on the back of each one... ...This-piece-of-paper's-got-47-words-37-sentences 58-words-we-wanna-know-details-of-the-crime Time-of-the-crime-and-any-other-kind-of-thing You-gotta-say-pertaining-to-and-about-the-crime I-want-to-know-arresting-officer's-name-and Any-other-kind-of-thing-you-gotta-say..." There were several full color 8x10's showing me propping open the NS door with a wastecan, taken from a monitor, and a form I had to sign attesting to the fact that I would never again prop open a NS door lest I be struck dead by the hand of the Administrator. It could be something big, or it could be something minor, and Emergent and TAKOO01 gave some good advice. Good luck, NisterNurse, and welcome to allnurses!