This is my bitch session on work...
So we moved to a new hospital facility on 8/17/06, right, and two weeks before we opened everyone in our department was required to go to a tour of our new department so we wouldn't be totally lost and stupid when we started there.
Everyone in my group swore the hospital would not be ready.
Yet, on 8/17/06 at 0500 AM, we opened. I was at the old ER when we received our last patient, and we took some pictures and had a good time with snacks. Afterwards, we opened a bottle of champagne, all drank a medicine cup full, and split to go home.
That would have to be the last good time I've had at work.
Since then we have had an increase in our business, some of it is people wanting to see the new place, some of it is we have more space so we get more people to take care of.
But our staff did NOT increase, so we have the same number of people taking care of 25 people instead of 18 at a time. Three weeks straight of random work days being called in, random nights of co-workers bailing out and calling out, and just working ourselves into the ground, I've had enough.
Last weekend, 8/25/06, ater I finished everything at 0900 (only two hours late that night, I did pretty well overall), I was near tears and trying to tell my charge nurse from the night how inadequate to my task I felt at that time. She looked near exhaustion, and we were both figuring out how we were going to do another 12 hour shift in a row on less than 4 hours sleep and not really eating a meal in three days. She said that she had been emailing our boss about how killed the night shift has been getting since opening.
Day shift doesn't help. While the night shift staff went back to normal staffing after one week, days still overstaff their shift to keep themselves out of trouble. And yeah, they work hard like the rest of us, but they get to use the bathroom, damn it. It's hard to feel sympathy for their hard day when they had 13 people working at the same time, I just get to look forward to the same situations but with only four others with me. Yeah, that's right, five of us. Four nurses and a secretary, because we don't warrant a tech after 3 AM and usually our night tech has to play secretary because we are 'fully' staffed according to our boss.
I'm just tired. I've been working overtime which is good, but that's it. I don't get to eat anything at work, if I'm lucky I get a few sips of water and a visit to the bathroom, and I get to look forward to doing all of my charting after I give report at 0700, assuming my replacement has had their first cup of coffee and has caught up on gossip by then.
Shit, we all are. Our plight has been a battle of attrition since opening, and we are losing. Most of us are making a point to show up as a unit Thursday morning at the staff meeting to make ourselves heard. It probably won't make a difference, but at least I'll be able to vent my frustration at someone other than the choir.
Oh, and we figured out how the hospital got finished in time. When Ernesto's bastard child came through, about 35 rooms upstairs sprung serious leaks with water damage, and we had 14 separate areas of leakage in our department. Shitty half-ass jobs done hurriedly get the place together in time for opening, now if only we didn't look like asses in a $93 million building that couldn't keep out any rain.
Everyone in my group swore the hospital would not be ready.
Yet, on 8/17/06 at 0500 AM, we opened. I was at the old ER when we received our last patient, and we took some pictures and had a good time with snacks. Afterwards, we opened a bottle of champagne, all drank a medicine cup full, and split to go home.
That would have to be the last good time I've had at work.
Since then we have had an increase in our business, some of it is people wanting to see the new place, some of it is we have more space so we get more people to take care of.
But our staff did NOT increase, so we have the same number of people taking care of 25 people instead of 18 at a time. Three weeks straight of random work days being called in, random nights of co-workers bailing out and calling out, and just working ourselves into the ground, I've had enough.
Last weekend, 8/25/06, ater I finished everything at 0900 (only two hours late that night, I did pretty well overall), I was near tears and trying to tell my charge nurse from the night how inadequate to my task I felt at that time. She looked near exhaustion, and we were both figuring out how we were going to do another 12 hour shift in a row on less than 4 hours sleep and not really eating a meal in three days. She said that she had been emailing our boss about how killed the night shift has been getting since opening.
Day shift doesn't help. While the night shift staff went back to normal staffing after one week, days still overstaff their shift to keep themselves out of trouble. And yeah, they work hard like the rest of us, but they get to use the bathroom, damn it. It's hard to feel sympathy for their hard day when they had 13 people working at the same time, I just get to look forward to the same situations but with only four others with me. Yeah, that's right, five of us. Four nurses and a secretary, because we don't warrant a tech after 3 AM and usually our night tech has to play secretary because we are 'fully' staffed according to our boss.
I'm just tired. I've been working overtime which is good, but that's it. I don't get to eat anything at work, if I'm lucky I get a few sips of water and a visit to the bathroom, and I get to look forward to doing all of my charting after I give report at 0700, assuming my replacement has had their first cup of coffee and has caught up on gossip by then.
Shit, we all are. Our plight has been a battle of attrition since opening, and we are losing. Most of us are making a point to show up as a unit Thursday morning at the staff meeting to make ourselves heard. It probably won't make a difference, but at least I'll be able to vent my frustration at someone other than the choir.
Oh, and we figured out how the hospital got finished in time. When Ernesto's bastard child came through, about 35 rooms upstairs sprung serious leaks with water damage, and we had 14 separate areas of leakage in our department. Shitty half-ass jobs done hurriedly get the place together in time for opening, now if only we didn't look like asses in a $93 million building that couldn't keep out any rain.