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.
Friday, January 29, 2010
USNS Comfort Post
Head over to The Sandbox http://gocomics.typepad.com/the_sandbox to read my latest story on the USNS Comfort now deployed to Haiti.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Six days off!!Woohoo! Just finished a great stretch of no work! Aside from the drama of former neighbors moving out and abandoning their cat it was a very nice time away. Does anyone want a sweet kitty? My other neighbor and I, total saps we are, have been feeding her. I don't even like cats, I mean I have a dog, one the doesn't like cats either. However for some reason I like this cat. Maybe I'm a sucker for anyone or anything that's been dealt a raw deal. She certainly has. She hangs outside their front door looking in the windows, crying pitifully, looking for the people who no longer live there to let her in the house. We contacted one of the rescue organizations so hopefully we can find her another home. In the meantime my garage door is left open a tiny bit on the off chance she needs a place to sleep at night. Yep, sap, that would be me.
Tomorrow I return to work to an ICU where the staffing has been decimated by deployments. 13 RN's in the past 2 weeks deployed. 9 of them were planned at least a month in advance so we knew they were headed to Afghanistan and Iraq. The most recent ones though, the 4 who left Saturday, deployed on the USNS Comfort, the hospital ship is on it's way to Haiti. No one has any idea how long they will be gone. The civilians are left to hold down the fort and asked to work additional shifts. Aerovacs still arrive from the wars even though we now can only handle 3/4 of the patients we used to . Available bed space is no longer available. We simply do not have the staff. We make do and continue to give our patients the best possible care we can.
A sweet kitty needs a home. . .any takers??? ;-) Please? A pretty kitty anyone?
Tomorrow I return to work to an ICU where the staffing has been decimated by deployments. 13 RN's in the past 2 weeks deployed. 9 of them were planned at least a month in advance so we knew they were headed to Afghanistan and Iraq. The most recent ones though, the 4 who left Saturday, deployed on the USNS Comfort, the hospital ship is on it's way to Haiti. No one has any idea how long they will be gone. The civilians are left to hold down the fort and asked to work additional shifts. Aerovacs still arrive from the wars even though we now can only handle 3/4 of the patients we used to . Available bed space is no longer available. We simply do not have the staff. We make do and continue to give our patients the best possible care we can.
A sweet kitty needs a home. . .any takers??? ;-) Please? A pretty kitty anyone?
Thursday, January 07, 2010
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.
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.
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