suffering slackers sucks stinky sox
[2005-12-10 - 11:30 a.m.]

Yet another 'work' entry.

There is a nurse at work who I've known for about two years. She's extremely limited in her nursing experience. She's also extremely limited in her life experience. And she pushed my button for the last time.

We have many paperworks that need to be done by each nurse, and generally speaking, she NEVER does the ones she's responsible for. Guess who is asked to do them later on? Ahha.

She had elective hip surgery and was out for 3 months. When she came back she was assigned to work on C wing (affectionaly knowns as Crazytown b/c of the high concentration of demented and difficult patients) and of course, she went down to the boss and complained. But wait. Who did she think was stuck working her stint in Crazytown while she was away? Ahha. And now that she's back and has permission to work, she still doesn't wanna break a sweat.

Whenever she and I are together on the 'easy' wing, she always has some reason to go home early and leaves me with 42 patients from 10 to 11. It's not often, mind you, because in nursing, the better you are, the more they dump on you, so I'm usually on the heavier wings, but whenever I do get a break, here she comes wanting a favor.

Also, she's one to come and moan and groan about her kids. One of them is special needs, and the other is a toddler. A healthy, smart, rambunctious little boy who she said is "going to turn out like her bullheaded brother" when he grows up. EVERY time she tells me about a medical test, or evaluation, or teacher's meeting or WHATEVER else she requests (remember now, she is the one who requests these services) she comes back to work and tells us how totally incompetant the medical or social professionals are and how inadequate their tests are and how they all treat her rudely.

So, last night, she comes to Crazytown, where I have had an ESPECIALLLY STRESSTFUL WEEK and sits down, and begins this way:

"I don't know what to do.. My kids are total spoiled brats... out of control..Did I tell you about what's going on with my son, and that last eval he had?...They only spent an hour with him, running around after him.. That woman called me by my first name on only the second time I spoke to her and I was put off by it...anyway, it's really upsetting me, and I haven't slept well the past few nights because of it. I just don't know what to do."

All those little dots are me nodding or mumbeling oh really, anything non-commital.

But then, I had heard enough of her bad mouthing other medical type people when I now that she herself is not even willing to protect our residents from abusive nurses aides when she finds out about it. She craps all over the other nurses she works with and couldn't care less. So, I told her:

Beth, you're not gonna like this but I think you need to rethink your reaction to this. I mean, the woman tested your son, hinted that he has adhd and called you by your first name and you can't sleep for a couple of nights. Why would you have such a visceral reaction to this?

Then she 'clarified' and accused the woman of treating her with contempt. I said come on, do you think she's gonna keep doing her job if she really feels that way?

In the end, she was furious with me for even suggesting that she stop and think about her reaction. And maybe now she'll back off, and stop asking me for favors and slacking at my expense.