Subject A few things about work

There are some things about my job that are great. There are some things about my job that are hideous. First, the hideous (for it is always good to end on a good note....)

1. Working 9 to 5 would be nice. But i work 3 to 11. Which is what I always have preferred, because when you start work in the afternoon, you usually get up somewhere in the morning hours, so you have that few hours before work to do something. But then I get home, and I'm wound up like a spool of thread - god, that's a stupid analogy - I'm so stupid sometimes. I'm wound up like a top - whatever. So then I can't get to sleep until later; then I sleep later; so it ends up being that I am sleeping until 11 in the morning or so. At least that's the way it is at this time of year, when it is so dark and depressing out anyway. Although today we had sun, yay.

2. My job entails a lot of paperwork - TONS of paperwork. And when an Emergency Department gets busy, it doesn't just happen gradually. Everything explodes at once. And for some reason, we Emergency people have to register and "admit" all newborn babies and their mothers. They are on the other side of the hospital, in the OB ward - but we still have to register them, then run down there with TONS of paperwork.

And if you haven't been in an OB department in a while - they are CRAZY. The mothers wear electronic bracelets that are in sync with electronic ankle bracelets on their babies. All visitors have to wear badges, and all the employees in the area have to wear these special colour-coded pieces of laminated construction paper. Have I ranted about OB before? This conversation sounds oddly familiar. But anyway, a "code pink" would be announced throughout the hospital if a baby were to be kidnapped, which hasn't happened yet on my shift.

But tonight, we had an "E Alert" because someone stole two purses from the offices in the basement, so we had cops floating around all night, and all these secretive messages flowing across the loudspeakers. They never found the purses - I hid them well. No, not really.

3 There is nothing - NOTHING - in this world that bothers me more than people who go on power trips. RNs are very guilty of such things at times. And nothing is worse than a power tripper who needs to be on mood stabilizers. That's all I have to say on that one - well, except that I would like to remind these RNs that they only have associate's degrees! Not to go on my own power trip, but I personally went for the much higher and prestigious bachelor's degree, which I almost got, had I not fucked around so badly and never graduated. So to that RN I say HA! And quit being so moody.

4. You can always tell which people are really sick, versus the ones that are just there for attention, drugs, or hypochondria. The ones that are really sick don't have to put on an act - they KNOW they are sick and they try to act very politely about it. The ones that put on a big show are the ones that are either 1. just wantin' some drugs or 2. just wantin' an excuse to take off work.

5. Unions are incredible things, and we had our union vote today, but unfortunately the Emergency Department was so busy that I didn't get to go down and vote. Those kinds of things just happen.

6. I can't stand to see people in real pain. A lot of people seem to get more upset when they see a child in pain, and if the circumstances are bad, then it is really upsetting. But most of the time, children are crying not only because of pain, but because they're scared as shit to be in the Emergency room! And we all went through that phase. What really affects me is to see grown people who, as hard as they try, just can't keep the tears back because they hurt so badly. We had a guy come in who was hurt at work - cut his thumb nearly off, among other things - and he was just bawling, and I almost did too. Then tonight, this little old lady was trying to insist that she was okay, but then a moment later she would just clutch her head and shake from the terrible pain she was having. These are the patients that I wish I could just shoot up with pain meds myself - but unfortunately, I am not technically 'medical staff.'

The great things -

1. I am terrible at dealing with bad or awkward situations - and never know what to say to someone when they are upset. So the way I deal with such nasty moments is with humor - which can backfire. But usually it doesn't, and if I'm putting a bracelet on someone who's going to be admitted for possible surgery or even worse, and I can make them laugh about it - it just makes me feel like maybe I'm not such a horrible person.

2. Not all RNs are bad - in fact some are just plain crazy and that makes them fun. And the doctors in ED are different than your normal MD - they are much less formal and more personable with everyone, because they know that they have to deal with everyone in a decent way because of the way everyone has to work together down there. So it's nice to be able to call the doctors "Bob" or "John" and it's funny when the nurses tell them to shut up.

3. There's more, but I need to go to bed. Badly.