For the last month of my contract there at Santa Rosa Memorial I was thrown into the second twilight zone of Santa Rosa Memorial...a.k.a. the Palliative Care unit. This was the unit that was stationed across the street from the main hospital. The building was circa 1970, and trying to work in that was the challenge. Some of the staff had been there since the building was built, and totally set in their ways. One good thing i do have to say about that unit was that I had a great schedule. The manager gave me a long weekend every weekend I had off, so that was a good thing. But other than that...it was a rough last month. This unit was where the end of life patients go to "transition into the after-life" (damn I'm good). If they weren't "transitioning" then we got all the difficult patients that were "overstaying their welcome" in the main hospital (again...I'm good). This building was so outdated...there wasn't even wall oxygen or wall suction. I couldn't really chart LIWS (low intermittent wall suction), because it wasn't wall suction. It was more accurate to chart LICS (low intermittent CART suction). If a patient started choking I had to leave the patient and run to the end of the hall to the storage room and retrieve the suction cart! If a patient needed oxygen, which most transitioning patients do, I had to wheel in a oxygen compressor and fire it up, which made a not so soothing low pitch humm/buzzing sound. Nursing is always a combination of book smart, people smart, and being able to make due with what you have. But the Palliative Care Unit took that to a whole new level. Everyday was a new challenge.
Another challenge I faced every day I worked was with the Acute Care Manager. She had been at her position forever, and was not a fan of me. Most of you who know me and have worked with me know that i usually tell it like it is. It's a little hard for me to hide how I'm feeling. Well she didn't like that, she would hover over me and bark orders at me...which really went over well with me. I did overhear her one time lean over to the manager (who actually liked me) and say, "I don't know why you are so sold on her." So welcoming. Gotta love it. I soon found out that she just usually picks someone and rides them. And I was her October ride. I could not do anything right in this woman's eyes. One time she even questioned me on how i poured coffee for my patient. Needless to say, October was a very humbling month.
October was a busy month for me, I was host to my mother for a weekend and my good friend Stephanie another weekend. Both weekends were awesome, and made me miss home very much. I was also spending a lot of time trying to hunt down a job back at home....I am now back at home....yahoo! I will be working at Salem Hospital on the ICU step-down unit, which I am very excited about. The only thing i am not real excited about is the fact that i will be working the night shift. I haven't worked the night shift for a very long time so it should be interesting. I will keep you all posted. I am really excited to be home and starting something new. I always like starting something new. Which I guess is good in this area of nursing.
I don't know if Salem Hospital will have as many funny stories as Santa Rosa, but I will try to do a better job of keeping everyone updated via the blog! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving today...I know I am very full and very thankful. =)
