making judgements

So, a coworker whose worse than a GUNNER (in terms of behavior) tells me i'm going to page this doctor now. She was all hyped up and stuff after i told her the guy said to call if the patient wants benadryl because they weren't going to put in a prn order. anyway, she goes on making a big deal to the orientee about how stupid it is and all that. (Sometimes, i look at some nurses and just laugh in my head. I'm not sure how this girl thought her years as an LPN and whatever many months she spent at community college getting her associates equates to 4 years of med school and 4 years of resdiency)

Anyway, she calls the general team and they tell her to call the person covering. So i see the doc walking towards us and i said that's him coming. She turns and immediately turns towards the walk and go "oooo he's good looking." I thought, what happened to "i'm going to bug this person all day till he writes that benadryl order."

Anyway, i walk away,and when i walk back, i think the orientee realized i didn't tell them the patient was diabetic (ommission on my part but it's on the kardex and it's also in the emar so before she admister her meds, she'll realize that she needs a fingerstick). Anyway, in an effort to explain my oversight to her orientee, she tells her the fact that english isn't my first language impairs my ...... do i need to say more. I just like how some Americans judge intelligence by whether english is your first language or not. A friend in college once said to me "i can imagine how hard it must be for you learning this stuff because english isn't your first language so i can't imagine you translating this first into your language and trying to understand what it means." She always used to tell me let me help you study, let me help you study. Well, She was angry with me after graduation, didn't care till last year when she told me why she was angry. According to her, i made everyone think i was struggling when in fact i was making straight As. First of all, i have a policy of not telling people my grades because i think it's none of their business. Second, i worked all the time in college and i thought me complaining about not having time to study was the reason why she kept saying let me help you study. I mean that evening when she said she couldn't imaging how hard it is for me studying the stuff, i smiled at her and brushed it off as an ignorant remark. So i told her the fact that i didn't tell her my grades doesn't me she has to think of me as a stupid person.
I actually liked how i walked away with all those awards from school and wasn't on anyones radar. An American see you answering all the questions in class and still think you're stupid and struggling because english isn't your first language. An african sees me sitting quietly in class and even without saying a word, they call me a 'shark'. Of course, Jill is one american who looked at me sitting quietly in biochem when Dr R said the highest score was a 100 and she turned to me and said "i bet you had that 100". Again, i looked at her and smiled.

I don't mind when someone thinks i'm stupid. In fact it's easier for me because people who see the real me feel intimidated.

The evil that men do

I just got news, it's unofficial, that my manager came back from vacation and they asked her to leave. I knew what goes around will come around for her but this soon? i was expecting it to happen later. We've had so many people quit on our unit it's pathetic. Staff are complaining and unhappy. Each day i pray i have a job. I was actually planning on quitting sometime this year before my evaluation.

I've been reading the book of Daniel and i was thinking about how God humbles these proud rulers. Last year, i thought Belshazzar's destruction came too soon. Looks like i'm seeing something similar manifest.

Nothing is permanent in this life. My manager was someone with great nursing skills. How to talk to people and deal with staff was a whole different issue. I feel like she worked hard and she did suck up to the administration. She was the on-call person at odd times when i'm sure no one else wanted to be on call, like during the snow emergency and on weekends. I know she put her heart into her work on the unit. I know she's saved the hospital money. She did do some unethical stuff, such as not paying people who stayed over after 7:30 to complete their work, she made us clock out after work for staff meetings and while she kept us there for 2hrs, she only paid us for 45minutes. She threatened people, she knew very well that the job market for nurses is bad and she brandished that fact around and said i'll fire you and hire someone else because i know many people who can't find a job. She was petty and flaky.

I guess there's soo much management can take. I wondered for a second if she took a minute to wonder why people were leaving our unit. But then i figured that if she's looking at it from the point of view that they're quitting because they can't do the job and i can always hire someone else, then she's likely to see herself as the major reason why people left. We've had 5 techs on nights quit, 3 on dayshift, so many nurses have quit it's not worth counting. I think the recent exodus of 5 nurses from dayshift this month, including one who's worked there for 9years did it.

Oh well, i feel relieved. Whew! exhaling....

Internal medicine

I don't see surgeons taking a lot of crap and i don't see the attendings taking a lot of crap but residents and interns in IM do take a bunchload of crap. Surgery residents do take crap. Patients in the hospitals are so rude these days, well at least down here they are, it's sad they're crying about people going to specialty. I mean who wants to put up with an uneducated hiv, hepatitis drug seeker who insists on getting dilaudid?!

Doctors work hard to get where they are. Years of med school, crazy years of residency, putting up with insurance companies and meditech afterward makes me think they deserve every penny they get. The whole entitlement attitude from patients here is one that makes me want to go into a special where i don't have to deal with family members or patients themselves.

My heart goes out to nurses on these medical floors who have to put up with the bulk of the nasty attitude. I mean a resident only takes part of the crap if they decide to come up and see the patient. The nurse on the other hand is constantly on the floor and has to put up with peoples nasty attitude. For example, i've six patients, 3 primary cares, and i've joints i need to wash up and get in the chair in the morning. In order words, i'm overworked, stressed out and i have to put up with nasty attitudes. I wonder what would happen if med/surg nurses went on strike? Maybe the patients would learn to appreciate them? I doubt it!

I had a nasty patient last night, who just got on my very last nerve. He yelled at my charge nurse and i just had to walk over from the next room to tell him to not yell at us because we're trying to help and he doesn't own any of us. That shut him up for a couple of hours, then he started acting up again. 31 y.o male with HIV, Hep C, IVDA hx, all that crap along with the most nasty attitude. I pity the desperate female who has to put up with sight of him, let alone his attitude. The ER nurse couldn't stand him, the resident just said he's nasty and i think he's a pitiful thing. I guess the only way for him to gain some form of control is to yell at anyone when making any demands.

I respect everyone who works in the US health system, putting up with law school and other non-medschool graduates legislating healthcare in whatever way they seem fit. It's these same patients who eat the fruit of their actions. The sad thing is that there are those who are grateful and appreciate the help and sometimes, they make it worthwhile.

Yet Another cancellation

So i've pushed back tonight. I saw it coming. I'm trying to finish the last but one chapter for ochem, amines. it's not going to great. So, i ate some haagen-dazs and i'm reading the 6/17 MCATers reaction thread. It's always the same reaction. People come back and write how hard it was, and a month later, they do better than they thought. Goal for tonite is to finish the ochem chapter i'm reading, finish bio lecture II in TPR and finish gen chem 10 in TBR. That'll leave me with the last ochem topic which i'm thinking i may do on sunday with the last section of EM cuz the EM chapter in TPR is long, almost a 100pages. I still need help with fluids. Plan is to go through Nova and see if that help with my physics intuition, review TPR gen chem quickly and TPR ochem next week. Then start all over with TBR only.
So far, bio has been intuitive. I think my approach of just knowing my Anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology for nursing school helped out. Honestly, those are all that matters, i actually think physiology is the main thing. Know how something normally works, the pathophys is the opposite. medical and nursing interventions are geared to reverse the pathophys.
Alright, back to studying. i'll finish going through the SDN threads at work tomorrow nite.

Cancellations

So here's the thing about working overtime. I don't do it anymore. Primarily because i have better things to do such as school but during the semester and now i've lots of studying to do. But the other reason why i don't do overtime anymore is the fact that on 2 occassions last year, i was called in for overtime and my name was put down to be cancelled on the saturday. On one of those 2 ocassions, i was working the thursday, i wasn't put down to be cancelled sunday. Instead i was put down for the weekend so i don't make the differential. Couple other people have stopped coming in for overtime primarily because of the latter reason.

Anyway, coworker of mine did overtime during the week. On saturday which she was scheduled to work, they cancelled her and pulled a nurse from a different floor to come work on our floor so they wouldn't pay my co-worker overtime. Now, this is just aboveboard but it leaves me with the question "how far are they willing to go to save a dime?"