back at work and business as usual... the new weekend night nurse is pulling her hair out trying to check the new monthly doctor order sheets because the new day nurse is scary careless in her work... so the new day nurse signed off that all the doctor orders are accurate and the new weekend night nurse is finding a lot of errors that the new day nurse either made or overlooked... since the new day nurse has a reputation for saying things are done when they are not done (among other very poor work and nursing habits), it's likely that the new day nurse never actually checked the doctors orders or at best skimmed over them and just signed... scary careless...

and everybody asks why is she still here when there is no evening nurse at the moment because the evening nurse quite partly because she did not want to follow the new day nurse due to her scary careless nursing... combined that with the fact that the new day nurse is pregnant and once her probation period is over the facility is stuck without a nurse while she is on paternity anyway, everyone is asking the DON why she's still here... she's made enough serious errors and falsified orders and changed enough paperwork illegally to have the facility in serious hot water if a parent or advocate or auditor ever chose to demand records... but the nursing shortage is so severe that they are hoping she will somehow develop good habits and stop doing illegal documentation...

and yet nobody is mentoring her or training her because there's no nurses to spare for that and then there's her personality... she thinks she knows everything, is rude about telling others what to do, and is extremely lazy so she's constantly asking others to do everything that requires even a little movement... she's not that pregnant yet, according to her, though it's impossible to tell because she is very large... most people do not talk to her anymore because of personality conflicts... I seem to be one of the few she asks for advice from and surprisingly she sometimes even takes it...

could be because I called her out enough times on her laziness and sloppy nursing and I do it in a way that does involves as few other people knowing as possible... and also my reputation in this hospital precedes me and is usually related in terms of "be careful around him because he checks everything" which to me, is a good reputation to have in a hospital setting even if it's viewed as being a pain in the ass by some (usually by the careless or lazy)... the administrative nurses appreciate me because I've saved their licenses and jobs a few times... the way I see it is that I have the time, the skills, and the knowledge to audit so I might as well do it (instead of doing the minimum required as most night shift workers in this place do)...

it amazes me sometimes to watch people react to different situations, especially to see people react to authority... I wonder if people realize just how predictable and repetitive they can be (look at me, aye?) and I especially refer in this moment to those who, for whatever reason, seem to seek to deny any authority and feel oppressed or unfairly treated simply because they are given an assignment... maybe you know people who, when told how to do something, will, the moment you are gone, do something else or do what you told them to do in a different way... and in some cases, simply disregard what you told them to do entirely...

I see that a lot here...

I mean, these (staff) are grown people who choose to take a job where their primary responsibility is to monitor and maintain the safety of children who are completely dependent on them for everything they need from food, water, bed linen, hygiene products, shower time, clothes, even sheets of toilet paper... and on the night shift the task is as simple as it gets most of the time, stay in the bedroom area, listen for problems, monitor sleeping kids... and some need a written reminder every night about how to do that and for some who need such reminders, being reminded every night seems to be offensive in some way and they go out of their way to avoid doing their job, complaining that it's not fair that they have to do anything they don't want to do...

so why take and keep the job?...

there are other jobs, after all... these staff have degrees... education, if not intelligence... yet they are so predictable, like Pavlov's dogs... tell them to do something and they bark opposition... walk away and they act with defiance, ignoring their responsibilities until they are tired of trying to look busy doing nothing and want to sit back down (and that's when they return to the bedroom area, not to watch over the kids as much as to just sit down and be left alone, which seems to be what they want in the first place)...

in reading this entry, especially the first few paragraphs, I can see how I might come off in a negative light for some... there are moment when my patience wears thin and I simply call a spade a spade without concern for how it comes off... I can be seen as rude when I decide it is time for blunt honesty... but sometimes a moron needs to know they are a moron, or at least that they are doing a great job of acting like one...

you want to do little, you want to sit and talk whatever all night with others who want the same cushy deal, then do a half hour worth of work paperwork, do it right, and then sit down the hall and talk about whatever to your heart's content... just remember that you are sitting right outside of bedrooms and pretend your kids � or you � were asleep just twenty feet away and speak accordingly... in other words (because it obviously needs to be spelled out for some), keep your voice tone down to quiet conversation and if you can't learn to do that and really have no self control, get another job where you don't have to pay attention to anything...

no less be a good role model for kids who are primarily here because they need to learn self-control (duh, doh, sheesh)... I mean, do I need to get Homer Simpson to explain this?... yes, it is that simple and obvious... 1. care. 2. show it. 3. pay attention. 4. care. and that is the job we do here... if that is too difficult, then maybe you belong at McDonalds or in the defense industry (is that an incoming missile or are you just glad to see me?)... no, really, sometimes I think it takes the most educated people are the ones who can give the best demonstration of stupidity...

and the fact is that I am rarely that blunt with people here, mostly because I know how to speak professionally (shhhh, don't tell the babbler... or the whiney kid or self-pity monster or the silly irreverent wiseass or the blithering idiot fool either) and I choose not to be a supervisor or manager here (they don't pay enough for the responsibility and there's not enough support in the system)...

I think it all comes down to laziness and insecurity, heavy on the insecurity... if you are so insecure that you can not accept instructions from another person without whining, complaining, and doing everything in your power to defy the authority of the person who is telling you what to do, then get a vendor's license and push a cart around the street all day because you need to think that you work for yourself and no one else... but then, you won�t be successful unless you learn that you work for the customer, you work to please the customer... maybe you just need to win the lottery and retire to be the lazy asshole you want to be...

lazy asshole = someone who spews a lot of shit, slowly, and complains about it...

gee, but this bluntness can be fun (shhhh, you're not supposed to know I am giggling cuz then you might think I am laughing at those fools I am describing and pretending to be lecturing in this rant and that'll diminish the whole self-righteous angry young man effect of the rant... oh wait, I just did, huh?... and sometimes these parenthetic confessionals are the most fun of all and perhaps, if you understand, the most revealing aspects of my writing... character, sure, I've got some... insight into mine?... sure, if you can find it... it's right here plain as the nose on your ear)...

ok, ok (as one of my favorite characters here at work often says), I'll be serious for a moment... maybe even for a whole paragraph... wait, I'll take a deep breath and refresh my professional demeanor and all that good stuff... no, I won't put on a suit, but you can pretend...

I don't think I'm perfect or know-it-all and I don't think my confidence comes off as arrogant or condescending in person (and that's the feedback I get from most people who actually listen and hear)... it is simply (at least for me) that I find it easy to assess situations, trust my knowledge and instincts, and make decisions... I realize that intimidates some people, especially those who are trying to get over and have no clue how much easier their lives would be if they just dealt with their responsibilities and stopped wasting so much energy trying to figure out how to shirk them or complain about them or justify not dealing with them... but then, to each his/her own and most of the time we all create most of it (our own) ourselves, so c'est la vie and all that jazz...

ah, I guess I'm just that odd kind of fellow that Jackson Browne sang about, you know, the happy idiot struggling for the legal tender... except I don't struggle much... I prefer to create lemonade out of lemons, mud pies out of slung mud, fun challenges out of potential problems, and happiness out of thin air... I mean, think about it... thin air is thin because it is low in oxygen and decreasing oxygen can increase giddiness and... oh, you just get it or you don't... meanwhile...

have a nice day J

. o O ( NOTES ARE THE NEW HAPPY PILL ) O o .
(just let me know you were here)