Being Peta

It is a fucking pediatric convolecent home up on my nursing unit. The average age is 30-compared to our usual average age of 75.

There must of been a K-mart blue light special on MVA's and stupidity lately.

As a rule, I don't mind these patients. Plus, all of them happen to be male. Its just..... sometimes one has to lay the smack down.

I yelled raised my firm and direct voice to a patient.

"Look-I'm not fighting with you tonight. Take your pills, this is what they are for. If it doesn't get better in 20 minutes, I'll call BACK the doctor and get something else". Actually at this point, I would of given him 25 of benadryl,and try to snow the fucker.

I can, and will put up with alot of shit. Sure, I'm hypersensitive, and will bitch about things that I can't change, but pretty much (and you can disagree here), am very laid back and mellow.

I will put up with some shit from older people. To a point. I get it-the whole hirearchy of things--blah blah blah.

But from some stable 24 year old motherfucker who doesn't have a leg to stand on (no pun intended)

FUCK. NO.

I realised that is what has pissed me off. The twenty year old co-workers that i work with. They drive me fucking crazy. And I dealt with an average of 3 of them last night. I was being surounded by a ward full of 24 year olds... and the attitude, and bullshit was pretty high.

But I degress.......

I documented my ass into the next century on the pts ass. It bothered me at first....yelling at a patient. Not one of my more finer/gracefull moments. Something I'm NOT proud of.

It wasn't untill this morning, that I knew-I'm a fucking damn good nurse:

I took the time to give a partial sponge bath on a 24 trached, peg, head trauma comotose male.
I took the time to give him to wash his hair-comb it, and "spruse him up" for the day.
I talked to him, as if he was answering me-when lets face it-he's not going to period.
I made damn sure the stack of catholic medalians were pinned to his gown.
I voiced my concerns when the resident came around-knowing fair well the paitents mother, wouldn't.

And his mother who is a farmers wife in Iowa said I reminder her of a set of twins she knows... and as I left the room, I heard her say: "You look so wonderful today, Patrick".

This post by theferrett was recommended in one of the writing comms, so I went to check it out.

And it's absolutely awesome.

Points of interest to me:

- Any time you can have a character striving for something instead of complaining about something, do so.

O hai thar, whiny bored unhappy wronged characters! THIS is where you go wrong!

- "How is this character different at the end of the story than s/he was at the beginning?"

- Now that you know what he wants, how do you bring that out?

- Plot Is Fucking Irrelevant.

Okay, kind of irrelevant. But plot that tries to twist the character, instead of them driving it forward? Is bad...

- Overexplain A Little. No, Really. ... I think you'll be surprised at how deep you get in your head when you're writing.

- When In Doubt, Go Home.

More about it all - because maybe these points are totally not clear just laid out like this - follow the link above.

I'm amused by Paul's shock and horror over S.C's status, while he blandly ignores the fact that the starship's A.I. is basically in the same position. Get that beam out of your eye, Lt. Lao!

Quote o' the Day:

He considered that one for a moment. “You’re her slave?”

“Not slave… only humans… can be… enslaved…” she wheezed. “Possession.”

“You’re a thinking being, even if you were born in a genesis tank. You can’t just be owned.”

She gave him another smile, one that reminded him of similar such looks that his mothers had given him when he was young and ignorant. “You’re sweet… Lieutenant.”


Goal: 100,000 words
Words Today: 686
Words Total: 14,804
Words to Go: 85,196

Finally got a bit back on track after being distracted on the third by having to go to the doctor due to nearly spearing myself through the thigh with an old curtain rod. The rest of weekend was eaten up by holiday festivities (ie: lying around being lazy)

Quote o' the Day:

“You’ve basically been stolen for a wild goose chase. That doesn’t bother you a bit?”

My opinion was not consulted by Madame Khoury. I will admit I am not looking forward to an attempt to transit an uncharted hyperspace route.

“Neither am I,” Paul admitted. “I’ll try not to scrag… I mean I’ll try to bring us through in one piece.”

The sentiment is appreciated, Lieutenant.


Goal: 100,000 words
Words Today: 529
Words Total: 14,118
Words to Go: 85,882

Ganked from grrliz - because I have a hundred other things to do instead....

Bold the ones you've seen.
Put an asterisk after the movie title* if you really liked it.
Cross it out if you saw a film and really didn't like it.
Underline the ones you own.
Add one more to the list that you think should be on it.

( List here )

I think the series ending is breaking my heart.


Thanks go to thunderemerald for providing this fic that let me work through and face some of my Doctory issues. Obviously spoilers for 4x13.

*Wipes some tears off cheek*

I want Donna back.



In the meantime, I'll be in my bunk bed, thinking of Rose/Doctor Pr0n crying some more.

Off the awesome newsletter over on brit_actors:

With Gary Oldman, Jim Carrey, and possibly Cary Elwes, the Robert Zemeckis Christmas Carol is something that I'll probably want to see. Mmmm!

Also, for some Brits picspam, click here. You know, Alan Rickman, Jason Isaacs, Hugh Grant, Christian Bale, Gary Oldman...

*tries to stop drooling and get back to doing things*

Someone saw one of the pencil sketches chaypeta did of Maria (NSFW) and was sufficiently amused to offer this in counterpoint

( Trouble is, I don't know if Maria even is ticklish... )

End of the night...

Working in ER, I come across all sorts of situations with patients with all sorts of diseases... I can deal with that... take standard precautions and I'm happy and feel safe. But then there are freak occurences like the one this morning.

First of all, we got royally screwed last night... it was expected, though I'd hoped people would be smarter, but we all know the saying "hope in one hand, shit in the other..." Day shift told us it had been very very nice all day and they left the ER almost as pretty as we usually leave it for them... with 2 patients on the board. Then came the biligerent drunks, the chest pains, the COPD-ers... whatever... then came this morning... when we had the ER almost cleaned out. Patient comes in complaining of coffee-ground emesis... she'd been in 8 hours before complaining of a migraine... whatever. So my friend takes her to a bed (not one of mine...) and asks me to help her put in an NG tube... I'm happy to help my friend, even though I hate NGTs... with a passion. Now I hate them even more... She puts me on sip duty... we explain to the patient that it's not a pleasant procedure, but once the tube is in, it's in and it's not so bad... it's just getting it in that's the worst... so my co-worker sticks the tube up this pt's nose, gets over the bridge, and I start my job... I have the patient take a sip and my co-worker advances the tube... suddenly the patient struggles against the tube, turns towards me and spits the water back at me... into my face... I knew from taking care of her before that she has hep C... fuck... and now she has a GI bleed... whatever, let's get this thing in... 0655 this happens... SIX FIFTY-FIVE!!!!! So the realization dawns that I have to go through the exposure process... fuck. So I try my best to distract myself while the tears come... the tears pass and then the clerk comes and tells me I need to sign in. I finish what I'm doing (to distract myself) and go start the progression of humiliation. Fill out the workers comp forms, sit with the clerk as she registers me... suffer through the triage, the humiliating blood draw... go sit back in one of the private rooms and am interrogated by one of our most insensitive MDs (although, he's not bad to look at... :P), am told I need to pee in a cup for a urine preg (though, as I told the charge nurse, one has to have sex to get pregnant...), sit on the counter by the sink in the room for an hour waiting for my d/c instructions, have to talk to the MD again (though, perhaps he'll treat me more like a person now and NOT call me Liz anymore [because that's not my name]...), get my d/c instructions, and then have to go talk to the supervisor who has me talk to the infection control nurse over the phone... hear the same shit all over again that I already know and have been told numerous times already... get more paperwork to fill out... and then have to call my mum on the way home and tell her the story of why I didn't call her at 0730 like I usually do when I work ('cause she called me at 0745 wondering where I was...)... All this time, all I really want is to have a cigarette (because I'm a bloody hippocrit [I'm so tired that I don't care if that's spelled right]) and go to sleep... I didn't get a lunch break last night, either... so by 0845 I'm finally climbing into my car... so tired that I'm dizzy, and I came home... and all I want to do is go to bed, but no... I'm compelled to rinse my mouth with listerine and take a scalding shower because a patient SPIT on me!! A patient SPIT IN MY MOUTH!!!

And yet, I really do love my job... and I've worked with the nurse who took care of me before, and I like him... and my co-workers (albeit day shift, which I've never worked) were very discreet and understanding... but I still felt humiliated and exposed... because I'm a very independent and private person, and to have to go over my history with the doctor WHO IS ALSO A CO-WORKER was practically mortifying... *sigh*

I want to cry again... :*(

x-posted to my own journal...

Mrs. E's daughter just called. Her mom is getting discharged tomorrow. This is her request: Her mom needs to be turned every two hours due to being bedridden. The cost of in home care 24/7 to do this is over $1000 a week and she cannot afford this. She wants a hospital bed just like the one her mom is in now and in order for Medicare to pay for it she needs you to write a prescription for it. Yes, that is what she said, exactly.

Oh, did I tell you her daughter is a psych nurse and knows how to use the system? Just thought you'd like to know.

I found out yesterday that one of the Intensivists at my work committed suicide some time on Tuesday. He was one of the most caring, passionate doctors I have ever worked with, and I, along with my colleagues are shocked and deeply saddened by his death.

I was working a night duty on Monday night, and he came in to our unit - he wasn't on call for any of the 3 ICUs, but he often stayed back late for work - and was chatting to us for about an hour. He was reminiscing about how long he had worked at our hospital (8 years), and how his first unit to work on was ours (the Neuro ICU). He was very passionate about our unit, and fought for us a lot (neuro not being many peoples cup of tea). We believe now that he was saying good bye.

Naresh, I just wish that, whatever was so bad, so terrible, you could have spoken to any of us. You will be greatly missed.

And on a side note - to the nurse, who from day 1 thought he was a terrible doctor and person, taking stress leave just to get out of night shift is one of the sickest, most despicable acts. You are not even fit to lick his shoes.

Tagged by rosa_writes:

Rules of the meme
A) People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs & replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.

B) Tag 8 people to do this quiz. These people must state who they were tagged by & cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by. Continue this game by sending it to other people.

( Onwards! )

So, the logical next step would be to tag people, eh?

I tag.... you two. And you. Yes, you. Oh, and you, with the hair.

After over a year of nights, I'm finally moving to days! I'll miss the night shift- the crazy-wonderful people, the quiet, the $40/day shift differential- but I'm looking forward to rejoining my life. I've missed my kid :(

Sorry day shift you can't has my pineapple upside down cake. It is being reserved for those who work after 7pm and it is not my fault I have this uber busy ER 11a-11p shift so hands the frack off!

Roll call!

Who's working today?

Lets101 - Free Online Dating

My manager's assistant phoned today to ask if I would switch my nights on the weekend and work days instead. I said no. That usually means they have an imbalance of people on one shift or the other. So maybe, just maybe, that call means we might have adequate staffing for nights this weekend??!!!

According to an article on CNN today(Weil advises: "Do not be passive. Remember: It is the 'difficult' patients who often have the best outcomes)
I totally agree that patients shouldn't passively accept help care they don't want or understand but telling patients to be "difficult" really makes my blood boil.
Mr Weil, not only will difficult patients not have the best outcomes they are very likely to be avoided and ignored if they try to pull this blackmail bullshit on my shift.

All hell's broken out at work: the layoffs we were assured would "never" happen have -- with a vengeance. In April, our losses among our three facilities were touted as $100K, but as of this writing are over 3 times that amount. We've lost 2 counselors and an apprentice counselor/Public Inebriate Screener, with the positions formerly known as "skilled" (Masters level or at very least, requiring proper certification) being filled by largely unskilled staff in the name of the all holy dollar (ie.: the maintenance man and cook now double as PI Screener/Therapy Group leaders -- oh, but one Masters level counselor, who was also our non-medical Clinical Supervisor, has been relegated to little more than a dorm mother in our halfway house, since the 2 counselors were "laid off indefinitely" [ie.: fired]). The remaining PI Screeners had their schedules switched at a moment's notice with the attitude from Management being, 'Do it or leave.' 

"We" are also now expected to do all the laundry for the facility, which should be VERY interesting, seeing as NO ONE on Days (including the nurses) will exert themselves to even MAKE a damned bed, now! Yeah, let's see if it's worth the $6K a year we're supposed to be saving. "We" (meaning the Eve/Night PI/RN staff) already have to do the dishes, mop the floors, and take out the trash, as well as make dinner for the clients a few times a week. 

Since we now have no full-time staff at our halfway house, the PI Screeners are also responsible for pulling double duty over there, making sure doors are locked, folks are checked in, and groups are being run -- except for one nurse on Days (the one who ALREADY can't do the job she has), who's now expected to do groups there a couple times a week. 

The company's also looking into "an alternative insurance plan" for everyone. Gosh! Isn't that just swell! To top it all off, our Doc's going on Public Access Cable next week to "promote" our program, and guess which nurse he picked to accompany him in this fine endeavor! 

Ayup! Somebody, lend me a MUZZLE! ;D