Caught out in the rain

Today was my first official day as a part timer at work. My position is definitely being grieved, and in the end she will probably win, so I only have about 3 weeks in this position. And then I'm going to grieve her getting the position. It's a vicious cycle, being in a union job.

Anyway, I was meant to start work at 3.30. I had told William I was going to walk to work as I wanted to stop off at the scrapbooking store behind the mall. Usually I walk right through the mall, so going to this store would mean walking behind the mall and then through the upstairs parking lot and taking the bridge over the road to the hospital. A lovely walk on a beautiful day.

I bought plenty of paper for some projects I am meant to be doing along with a really gorgeous chipboard laced framermajinger. Everything in the store was on sale and there is nothing I love more than a good sale. Not that 15% off is a good sale, but it's okay.

When I went to leave I noticed it was raining. Not badly, but not a light rain either. By the time I got to the crosswalk it was pretty strong. By the time I crossed the street it was pouring. My biggest mistake was not staying under the parkade. I ran up a set of stairs thinking it would be quicker to cross the bridge. By the third step I was absolutely soaked. I couldn't even find the bridge when I got up there, there was that much rain and hail. Back down I went. When I came out of the parkade it was just a light rain. When I got to the crosswalk it started hailing again. I made it into hospital without getting hit by too much hail, but was soaked to the skin. My new Mary Jane crocs (which I love, love, love) were so wet they were squeaking.

It's a lucky thing I didn't wear my scrubs to work, I would have had nothing to change into and would have been forced to wear the green scrubs that the ER nurses wear and that we are not allowed to wear. They complain everytime we do, though we have one guy who is about 6'6" and none of ours fit him so he has to wear those ones. I don't mind being caught out in the rain, but it was a bit of shame today because my hair looked freaking fantastic, which is not something I say often about my hair, but by the time I got there I looked slightly like a mangy mutt. A wet one at that.

So work was pretty good. I meet a lot of interesting characters. I come across some right freaking eejits too. Those are usually staff members. Here's a few examples (since I know you are dying to know):
- last weekend when I worked I was paged to take a patient from ER up to the floor. The patient had isolation precautions posted on her door and the nurse must have noticed me looking at it, because he said "Oh you don't need to glove or gown. Don't worry about it." Yeah. Obviously, if she's in isolation there's a reason. This is a big issue with nurses, they often don't follow protocol, which gets us in shit with, say, the radiology department, because we haven't put their charts in pillowcases or whatever. So I go to take this very lovely lady up to the unit and as I look for her room number I see her diagnosis. Which, really? I shouldn't know, it's none of my business, but the room number is located right next to it. I take her up and she notices they are putting her in a semi private room with a patient that is not under isolation precautions. It's mentioned to the nurse and she says to me "What her diagnosis?" Were I a smart person I would have said "Excuse me? Are you not her nurse? Are you not aware of this before she arrives on your floor?" but all I said was "c-diff." They decided this was fine, she could room with this lady and I left on my merry way.
- today a nurse did my ultimate nurse pet peeve. She put the catheter bag over the side rails of the stretcher. This drives me crazy. Pee travels down, not up. This I think is a part of basic nursing education, it's definitely something I learned in my NA program. So I should think they learn it at some point in their 4 years of schooling.
- a nurse groaned loudly and for a long time when I brought up an obese patient. In front of her! I thought that was so rude. I also hate when nurses say in front of a patient "She is too heavy to lift on my own." and the dreaded "He's too fat for me to do by myself." Honestly, do these people not deserve a little respect?

I should point out that these are the small majority, I do think most of the nurses are fantastic. Really. I don't hate nurses, my best friend is one. And a fantastic one at that. She writes notes to the parents on behalf of the baby. She remembers patients (well, more there parents since babies do tend to change an awful lot over the years) ages later and will ask how those kids are doing. So there are great nurses. And there are some that you question why they are in their chosen profession since they seem to hate sick people.

Crap, this post is long. And I need to go to sleep so I shall save you from anymore Emmarants for today. Until tonight maybe, since I work again.