Sunday, April 19, 2009

Update in my life

So I guess it is time to update everyone on what has been going on in my life. Really it has been pretty much the same. Work and trying to study plus have a social life. One of the best things is I was able to catch up with one of my favorite people that I had not seen in several years. Shanna and I hung out for several hours and it was like we had just seen each other. No weirdness just a great friendship. She has a beautiful family and a beautiful house that they are building. Each day at work I usually learn something new. It might be something about medicine, disease, drugs, or how to be a better supervisor. Of course highlights of work is the blood and guts and then helping a patient figure out why they have a rash. Lately the big allergen has been shin guards for soccer. Mainly it is the rubber backing but sometimes it is the dye of the fabric covering the backing.
So I have put a couple of pictures through out so you can see something beautiful in between my ramblings.



Now for the crappy part which has been the month of April. April fools was actually a great day at work because we were able to get Dr. Hadley who does surgery and he starts before anyone else. The girls in the back had set it up so lights were all turned off except for the waiting room and our physician assistant had called Dr. Hadley to tell him that he was sick and wasn't going to be there. They then also had the supervisor from upstairs come down and tell him that all of his staff for that day had called in sick. He was very, very worried. He didn't know what to do. Here was all these patient and yet he didn't know how to feel out any of the paperwork that needed to be done before he started. Then everyone came into clinic and said April Fools. It was great. He bought pizza for the clinic that day.

Now for April 2nd. I was in one meeting after lunch and then I get pulled out of that meeting and into another meeting where I am told that 3 out of the 6 RN have been laid off. 2 of which work in my clinic and were working in my clinic that day. Before I got pulled into this meeting each of the nurses were told and then sent home because HELLO I WOULDN'T WANT TO WORK THE REST OF THE DAY. The one thing nice is they can work for the next 30 days, so it wasn't an immediate lay off. But I had to leave that meeting and go check on my clinic because we had 3 physicians working and yet now was down 2 people and by the time I made it over to clinic most of my staff was ready to walk out. NOT A GOOD DAY or feeling. I don't think I slept for a week after that. Part of this lay off is the condition that the department can not hire a nurse for one year without offering that position to one of these 3 nurses first. So I don't know what will happen when I finally finish. I have gone back and forth from being angry, to not caring, to having faith that some how I will be hired when I get done. Mainly I have a hard time knowing that I have worked my butt off for almost 5 years for this department and yet that may not be rewarded or even cared about. That is hard to come to grips with. One thing nice is that I have Dr. Powell in my corner, meeting with people and pleading my case. That gets me over being angry to having hope.

With me losing these 2 nurses and then Amiee in May and then Kristen in July I will be down to 4 employees by July 1st. We actually finally got the okay to hire 2 people. So that will help but I will still be short staffed.
The next crappy thing is remember I told you I was in a meeting that I was pulled out of. Well that meeting was also with Human Resources because someone was doing something illegal. The problem is that we are all human and were feeling bad about having to fire this person because she is 6 months pregnant. But this situation got dragged out until just last week because she was trying to save her job by throwing everyone else under the bus which was not a very pleasant thing. I felt bad for everyone that got dragged into this mess. Jennifer, who is her immediate supervisor, was able to miss most of it because she was out of town. It is a good thing she bought me a little tiny mug that has Vegas Princess on it. So now we are friends again.
Wanting to end on a happy note is that clinic seems to be calming down and I am calming down. I had a good Easter and a good Conference weekend. Plus Stephanie Powell called me inviting me on a girls only Disneyland trip in May. So excited!!! This will be my first time :)

6 comments:

The Gardner Family said...

Really?! First time in Disneyland?! You will have a blast! Sorry about everything else though. Hopefully it all gets better soon!

Monica Hudson said...

Woohoo!!! Mickey has a way of solving all of life's problems! It's the ears. Have fun and take your mind off of the rest of it all for a little while! xoxo

Melissa said...

Have fun at Disneyland! Yea! More fun pictures. Ask Stephanie to take some pictures of you for your nieces and nephews! We miss you.

Mindy said...

Crystal!!! I didn't know you had a blog! Why didn't you tell me?! I'm glad that you commented on mine today so I could track you down. :) It sounds like things have been totally crazy at work. Drama, drama!!! I'm glad you have Dr Powell, though. And Disneyland sounds AWESOME!!! I've only been twice. Once as a child and once as an adult. I loved it both times. Hope you do, too. :) And I hope things bottomed out before Easter and everything will all be uphill now.

Oh, and your trip looked SO fun! I'm jealous. What a great experience. And you took some great pictures, too.

Megan said...

Crystal,
I know this is unrelated to your post but I wanted to tell you how sorry I am about the passing of your Grandma... my parents said they got to see you at the service, I wish I could have been there too. I want you to know that my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.
Megan

Combs - A day in the Life of... said...

Hey girl. It was a blast to hang out with you and we need to do it again soon. We still need to do the zoo I am just waiting for a nice day.. :) Hope you had fun at Disneyland.