i'm still doing okay Betty Jo

Honestly I wish the hospital would issue us scrubs. I HATE shopping for scrubs. HATE IT. You walk in the stupid store and there are thousands of scrubs to choose from. I don't want that many choices. I don't want that many colors. I don't want to have to choose v neck, square neck, round neck, ruffled neck. I don't want to look like walking wallpaper or wear something that looks like something you'd see on a bad LSD trip. I don't want hello kitty, mickey mouse, holiday scrubs. I don't want scrubs that reflect the local sports team.

Then, have you ever noticed that scrub shops are always staffed by middle aged women who have probably been there for 15 years....? They want to help you SO BAD. I hate that. Leave me alone and let me looks through all of these assinine patterns.

Inevitably you find something you like and they don't have your size. Here comes Betty Jo again asking if you are "STILL DOING ALRIGHT"? No Betty Jo, didn't you notice I had a seizure 2 minutes ago?

You go to the counter and of course they want to put you on their wonderful mailing list where you will get all those great discounts. They want to know where you work, your blood type, you mothers mothers uncles cousins name. And of course, Betty Jo does this with a big smile plastered on her face in her chirpy voice wearing her Uniforms Personified get up with "Betty Jo" stitched on the pocket.

I run outta there, my sanity barely intact.

con artists?

I'm a genuis okay? I fixed my computer by myself. About 5 days ago I really messed it up. I would turn it on, log on and it would shut off. After trying all this shit to fix it, it just wasn't going to happen. I took it down to a major electronics retailer where we bought the computer. They have a well known repair department. Left it there and they finally got to it after 4 days. Then they told us that they couldn't fix it because we had to order some kind of disk from the manufacturer, run it and bring it back to them and then they could fix it.

So I looked up this disk on the computer and on the website it said that be sure you exercise your free options before you buy this disk. I don't know how but I figured out how to do it but now it works better than before. The disk would have cost 35 dollars.

My question is why couldn't this well known computer repair place figure out how to do this? The thing is you can take your computer in for repair, figuring that you now absolutely nothing about how computers work. They fix it and you just pay what they ask because what the hell do you know, you're just happy they fixed it. In other words, ripe for rip offs. I have found that I can usually look up problems with computers and figure out from that what to do to fix it.

newbie doobie do

I am always fascinated by who chooses to be preceptors for new nurses. Its usually the obsessive compulsive know it all nurses. Of course, yours truly, would never be a preceptor. Why not? A couple of reasons: 1) At this point I just want to do my job and go home 2) Lets just say I am not a big rule follower (I know that is hard to believe)

I am what you call a corner cutter. If I think its stupid I might not do it. That means I don't do half the shit we are supposed to do. Bada boom...The stuff I think is stupid is all the ridiculous documentation we have to do. For example a whole pile of shit about whether you have enough money for food, might off yourself or off someone else, etc. We are suppose to ask every person who comes in these questions, even if you are there for a finger laceration.

Another thing: everybody is supposed to have a set of vitals before they leave. Even someone who is there for a damn toothache who had NOTHING done. Stupid. There are times I have not done the medication reconciliation on people who are discharged. OH MY GOD, you didn't do that?!!!! Twenty lashes with a tourniquet.

So you see as a preceptor, I would have be a good nurse, dot all my i's and cross all my t's and tell the preceptee that they must do all of these things or else the world will come to an end. I couldn't do that with a straight face.

dem uppity nurses

I spoke before about the corporation I work for proposing nurses in all their hospitals wear the same uniforms. Right now we can wear pretty much what we want scrub wise. The reason for this change they tell us, is that surveys done with patients say that they like it when all nurses have the same color.

At first I thought, whatever, who cares? What difference does color make? But I've been thinking. ..(uh oh).

Let me preface this by saying that in the last 10 years nurses have made some significant progress in places across the country about patient care. In California, patient ratios are mandated by law. A lot of people don't agree with it, but its an example of nurses advocating for thier patients and getting some control over their practice. Nurses are speaking up about patient care in different cities, some more loudly than others.

In other words, nurses are realizing the power they have to advocate for their patients and their profession. We are the backbone of the medical profession. When we bargained our contract last year, we felt good standing up for ourselves and our patients. Of course the hospital didn't like it. They want to be able to control nursing at the hospitals we work in. They want us to stay in our place. So when nurses demand the pay and benefits and working conditions due a professional on whom everyone in the hospital depends, the hospital answers that nurses are greedy and unrealistic. They hire PR firms to speak against nurses in the press. They hire PR firms to advocate against the idea of patient ratios in the legislature. They try to change the structure of union activities at the hospital. AND they propose things like uniform changes. To put the nurses back in their place. It says you are hourly wage earners and we can even control how you look. Its just one more way to take away our power. Dem nurses they jus' gettin' too uppity...Your thoughts?

d-d-d-d-divert

I know that this week the posts have been lax. But alas.....it is spring and an old crotchedy gal's thoughts turn to going outside...splashing through puddles and absorbing sun light.

So I was charge yesterday evening and the minute I took over at 3 pm, it exploded. Here's what happened:

1) 4 ambulances enroute with no beds in ER
2) unexpected hypotensive person from another hospital department
3) unexpected employee VIP sort of person who of course had to be put back right away
4) involved phone call regarding lost item
5) chest pains and dyspneas and lions and tigers and bears in triage
6) suicidal people in triage with no bed in ER

Last time I worked charge, same thing happened only worse. I once again put us on divert for about an hour and a half. Maybe I won't have to work charge any more.

On a day like this I am a well paid bed cleaner and bed rearranger.

There is an emerging problem in the ER: Most patients in the ER these days are complicated and sick. They require extensive testing and treatment. A lot of them are admitted and so we play the bed waiting game. They aren't the kind of people that can be put in a hall bed, so ER is full of people that can't be moved. Meanwhile more people coming in who need beds. What do you do? The least sick go to the hall. Some patients and their families don't like going to the hall. I don't blame them. But whater we supposed to do? Sometimes I wish we had an ER admit holding area...