Because I posted about our flooding recently, I know that you are aware of the disaster our area has been in. This has hit Josh's and my professions especially hard. He, being in law enforcement, has had one day off in the past 12 or so. When you work 12 hours at a time, that's quite a bit of extra work. He's exhausted and grumpy and only the thoughts of the overtime paycheck get him out of bed anymore. I can't say that I blame him.
I, however, haven't had to work too many extra hours. That's because our neighbors and friends at the hospital across town which was evacuated came with their patients and have been working alongside folks from our hospital for over a week. Frequent letters, plates of cookies, and a BBQ at our hospital's cost have come down from administration, praising the staff of both hospitals for putting our competition aside and focusing on our jobs.
First I would like to mention that when comparing a nursing job at one hospital to a nursing job at another, one would have trouble finding too many vast differences. The way in which we document, perhaps... our paychecks, perhaps... these things may differ, but the heart of our job is the same. To praise a nurse for working alongside another nurse to do nursing........ it seems unnecessary. I do appreciate the acknowledgment, however, because actually - it hasn't been easy.
Our hospital uses an incredible computer system to pass medications and do a lot of other things. We don't do anything on paper anymore except the actual doctor's orders. We verify orders through the computer, we scan bar codes on our meds and on our patient's identification bracelets, and we have a locked computer that distributes narcotics and prn meds.
Our competitor hospital, whose nurses we are so graciously working alongside, does everything on paper. Everything.
This creates a bit of a problem. There are nurses from both hospitals alert and ready to go to work. Stethoscopes on, pens-aready to document, etc. But only one group can pass medications, because with impressive computer systems come an impressive amount of sign-on names and passwords and hey, let's admit it, a bit of computer-savviness. Unfortunately, regardless of whether our colleagues from the other hospital are computer-savvy... they can't pass meds. Great. Well, so they get a "buddy nurse" from our hospital. They do most everything except anything that is on the computer. And as I mentioned... it's all on the computer at our hospital. So much of our system revolves around the computer that when our system goes down we are in chaos. It's not easy to double up on the number of patients you are responsible to use the computer for.
That said, I do appreciate the work of the nurses from our sister hospital. I appreciate their willingness to work outside their comfort zone, in a hospital which uses systems that are foreign. I appreciate their years of experience and their expertise. I'm just a bit frustrated with the set up. Last night from 7p-11p, I had a "buddy nurse" who did nothing except question what I was doing, asking me when the last MRSA swab had been taken, why a patient hadn't been scoped, etc. etc. She even counseled me on how to speak to one of their hospital's physicians. I couldn't help but think if she was BUSIER, perhaps she wouldn't have had the time to get into my business! I gave her report at the end of my shift (she was there the whole night), and I thought it'd be a quick run-through (seeing how she was aware of every detail on my patients already anyway). Nope. She wanted the whole shebang.
And maybe that's why I didn't feel I needed to call the hospital this morning to pass on what I'd forgotten to pass on. I may not have said it during report, but I had certainly made her aware of it throughout the shift. I do appreciate their helping to shoulder the workload. But I will be thankful (as I am sure they will!) when things are back to normal at our hospital....... including the number of patients we are currently serving, with one less hospital in town!
3 days off...
No comments:
Post a Comment