Do you ever feel as if what you do as a profession holds no value to the powers that be? That your skills, experience and knowledge count for nothing to those in leadership? That's how I feel right now. It started as a small trickle of disenchantment two months ago when I took the issues to management with hopes these things would be resolved. No such luck, nothing has changed.
I went into work suffering with asthma, I wasn't contagious; my patients and coworkers needed me. I couldn't breath but hey, I was there. I made an impact. I was sick through Thanksgiving and sick again at Christmas. First time in 5 years I've had asthma attacks bad enough I willingly called my doctor and agreed to meet him at the hospital.
New Years wasn't any better and even my personal physician told me to stay home. But calling out on a holiday and a holiday weekend at that are big no no's so I went in.
With additional strife being added to my professional career my trickle of disenchantment has turned into full blown mutiny. I went home sick from work earlier in the week and home is where I have stayed. A blanket email was sent to all the nurses about "being responsible and coming into work, that our wounded warriors needed us, that flimsy excuses would not be tolerated and would be subject to disciplinary action".
I have no interest in returning there anytime soon. My doctor has agreed I need time off, asthma is a bitch. And so currently is this job.
This started out as letters home to my friends and family while I was at Hurricane Katrina, and continued through my deployment to Afghanistan. I have recently added my friend Clara Hart as a contributor. Now it very roughly chronicles life as a civilian, and citizen of the USA. If you need some assistance with Workplace Safety Programs, please let me know, I am happy to help.
2 comments:
My asthma is "mostly" under control. I wake up each morning and use my bronchodilator inhaler -- two deep puffs 5 minutes apart so that it begins to work before I switch to the inhaled steroid. Repeat at lunch and dinnertime. But then there are those unexpected encounters with triggers -- the smell of someone's microwaved popcorn can set me off on a two minute impression of an 18th century TB patient (without the blood). People act like I'm Swine Flue Stu come to infect them.
I can manage my asthma. I can not manage my managers. They live in a different world governed by numbers. (I would gladly let the lawyers live if I could only kill all the MBA's.) Managers are why the tech support person wants you to wipe your system and reinstall the operating system -- it closes the call and keeps the tech support person's numbers in line. To hell with whether or not you can use that computer afterward.
Be strong Ms. Clara. You're there for your patients and their families and we never know when we or someone close to us may become one of those families that receive your strength. But you are not Wonder Woman and a Clara who has given everything, every day, for a long long time isn't going to be able to keep giving without taking time to recharge more than one kind of battery.
Clara, I have been reading your posts for a long time. You are a gift to the wounded men and women you take care of. Your writings clearly show how much of your heart you give to each and every one of them. It is not uncommon for those in charge to lose sight of what is really going on around them. My wife has asthma so I know how sick it can make you, and when it's bad there is no way you can do the kind of work you do and do it at the level you expect yourself to do it at.
Anyway, I really respect you and what your do. Get well and don't try and go back to work before you are well enough.
Chuck Hancock
cahancock@ualr.edu
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