Crayon playing poker, wondering and wandering; the on-call weekend like no other
"Hey Kelly, can I have a couple of the coffee stirrers?" (Not allowed to distribute them, yet we have them on our unit.)
"....Uh, well I'm not supposed to let you all have them. What do you need them for?"
"Oh, just a couple of us are going to play poker and we don't have any chips." I blink slowly and try to process this information. A few minutes later, 4 patients are seated in front of me, and instead of coffee stirrers they're using crayons. One of them caught my gaze. "Are we doing anything wrong?"
"Nope...carry on."
This past weekend was what I have called in the past being on-call. What that means is that twice a year, each nurse and tech has to succumb to being chained to one's phone for the entire weekend, Friday through Sunday, waiting to be called for any shift and any unit. This has happened to me 4 times now, and I've resigned to schedule the 2nd one of this year much much later in the year. I finally ran the shifts I worked in my head, and it went something like this: 1/2 a shift on Friday, one shift on Saturday, like.....2/3 of another, 1/2 a shift on Sunday followed by wrapping up working night shift. The night shift was the craziest; sitting in a hall, other tasks, running to a nearby hospital to pick someone up, messing with the van, learning how to drive the van, cursing the van and praying to God to get me to the hospital in one piece. Praying to God to keep me awake during the night, yet all the while thanking God that I at least have a job. Still do. Slept all day Monday to recover, got the day off Wednesday. I've had so many people ask me why I have to do that? Corporate policy? Sadism? Just because? Probably a combo of the three (kidding on the sadism) but I only have to suffer through it twice a year. It's actually not too bad, and the pay isn't shabby either.
Recently, I got my badge changed. I added BSN on it, after I saw a co worker with the same thing. I was like...well now that's a great idea. I happen to be very proud of my education, especially coming from Berea. So yeah, I guess technically I copied someone, but still. I've learned in my time out of school that if you have something to be proud of, be proud of it! I don't think there's any shame in being proud of something, no matter how big or small it may be. See, where I work, we celebrate the little things. I remember an instance this weekend where we celebrated something small, but it'll stick with me. It's something I didn't expect celebrating, but still. We did. And you should have seen the look on that patient's face. It was nice to celebrate, just something small. To be honest it's been a rough couple of weeks. Our patient acuity isn't the greatest, and we have some...really genuinely sick people we're trying to care for. The weather's been crappy, as it is right now (cold and rainy icky and a bit of snow earlier) And I've been missing someone who's been purty special in my life....that I actually haven't heard from in a while. I am concerned, but I'm trying not to get too close...again, because, well, I don't want to push anyone away. In the meantime I'll listen to my sappy and yet calming music from my high school years and just focus. Focus on what (and who) I have in my life now, trust that God is up to something and pray for a safe return home. Not only for this person but for my patients I'm caring for too.
"....Uh, well I'm not supposed to let you all have them. What do you need them for?"
"Oh, just a couple of us are going to play poker and we don't have any chips." I blink slowly and try to process this information. A few minutes later, 4 patients are seated in front of me, and instead of coffee stirrers they're using crayons. One of them caught my gaze. "Are we doing anything wrong?"
"Nope...carry on."
This past weekend was what I have called in the past being on-call. What that means is that twice a year, each nurse and tech has to succumb to being chained to one's phone for the entire weekend, Friday through Sunday, waiting to be called for any shift and any unit. This has happened to me 4 times now, and I've resigned to schedule the 2nd one of this year much much later in the year. I finally ran the shifts I worked in my head, and it went something like this: 1/2 a shift on Friday, one shift on Saturday, like.....2/3 of another, 1/2 a shift on Sunday followed by wrapping up working night shift. The night shift was the craziest; sitting in a hall, other tasks, running to a nearby hospital to pick someone up, messing with the van, learning how to drive the van, cursing the van and praying to God to get me to the hospital in one piece. Praying to God to keep me awake during the night, yet all the while thanking God that I at least have a job. Still do. Slept all day Monday to recover, got the day off Wednesday. I've had so many people ask me why I have to do that? Corporate policy? Sadism? Just because? Probably a combo of the three (kidding on the sadism) but I only have to suffer through it twice a year. It's actually not too bad, and the pay isn't shabby either.
Recently, I got my badge changed. I added BSN on it, after I saw a co worker with the same thing. I was like...well now that's a great idea. I happen to be very proud of my education, especially coming from Berea. So yeah, I guess technically I copied someone, but still. I've learned in my time out of school that if you have something to be proud of, be proud of it! I don't think there's any shame in being proud of something, no matter how big or small it may be. See, where I work, we celebrate the little things. I remember an instance this weekend where we celebrated something small, but it'll stick with me. It's something I didn't expect celebrating, but still. We did. And you should have seen the look on that patient's face. It was nice to celebrate, just something small. To be honest it's been a rough couple of weeks. Our patient acuity isn't the greatest, and we have some...really genuinely sick people we're trying to care for. The weather's been crappy, as it is right now (cold and rainy icky and a bit of snow earlier) And I've been missing someone who's been purty special in my life....that I actually haven't heard from in a while. I am concerned, but I'm trying not to get too close...again, because, well, I don't want to push anyone away. In the meantime I'll listen to my sappy and yet calming music from my high school years and just focus. Focus on what (and who) I have in my life now, trust that God is up to something and pray for a safe return home. Not only for this person but for my patients I'm caring for too.
Comments
Post a Comment
Questions, comments and concerns are always welcome, so long as they are pertinent to the content of the post, aren't rude or offensive. Thank you for reading and being respectful in sharing your thoughts! :)