muchas gracias ***EDIT***

!!!

Ok, who did it?? C’mon, tell me so I can at least…I dunno…send you a holiday greeting card from the religion of your choice! pleeeeeeeeease?

hrmph.

Well. Thank You, very much, to whoever was kind enough to give me a gift subscription. heh. Every little bit of sanity helps…

*******EDIT********
Wait, apparently there are TWO whoeverers?! AHHHHH This’ll drive me nuts, trying to figure it out! ;o) hehe. Well. Thank you Thank you.
*******end edit**********

Speaking of (in)sanity….

Hetracil, the new Cure! I knew it wouldn’t be long til drug makers started to spend time, money, and valuable resources on such a stupid thing….*rolls eyes*

Good times, yeah?

I need to put my laundry away and do some of the things on my huge To Do List and then get ready to go in to work for a 17 hour shift. (WHAT was I THINKING??) Oh well. Hopefully Grace’s stuff won’t be too overwhelming. I just worry about doing things wrong or messing something up. But. Like she says, most everything can be caught later and fixed if it’s messed up. So. And. I do this as a favour to her…it’s not my regular job and I only do it very infrequently. The “guidelines” change so often. She doesn’t really fault me if I make little mistakes. She just points them out to me and life goes on. But still, she is SUCH a perfectionist that I know it really bugs her when there are mistakes. *sigh*

And then I get to do my regular nite shift. Staffing tonite…bleurgh. McDidiot (if she’s out of the hospital and allowed to return to work yet), Laurie who bosses people around and gossips unbelievably, Jeff who is good and thank goodness he’s there or I’d scratch my eyeballs out, and Ruth. Who. She has power issues. Like, if a pt appears to be telling -her- what to do, or not immediately following her directives (which, it’s a psych center. Both of those things tend to be the norm rather than the exception…), she gets all in a tizzy and is just like “FINE. You’re getting medicated!!!” And it’s like….”uh…Ruth? Yeah, he shoved the papers off of the desk. But usually he tips the whole damn chart rack over…he’s being good right now. Don’t provoke him!!!”

I dunno. Some people work better with psych patients than others. And it’s not that I think that she’s a bad nurse or incapable of doing her job- I think she means well. She just…maybe I think it seems like she feels really threatened when her authority is questioned. And I don’t necessarily fault her for that. Just, she treats all the patients as if they were the same? Doesn’t take in to consideration that one patient’s manic behaviours aren’t necessarily going to lead where another patient’s have led. And, I guess part of it is that, many of the patients…I’ve been there 3 years. I know a large majority of the people who come and go. You learn how far you can “push” certain people– how firm your redirections can be, or when to do just ignore them and they’ll go back to bed….she’s new, so doesn’t know these things.

But she also doesn’t listen when we tell her. She’s like “Well, that’s not gonna happen on MY shift…” And. Well. It just doesn’t work that way. Ya just gotta pay attn to the little nuances. And I guess nuances of people who are actively psychotic/manic/schizophrenic are sometimes difficult to discern. But. You learn, eventually, when someone is staring at you calling you a cuntrag and threatening you and saying any mean thing they can about you….I learn, at least, to look them in the eye. Often you can tell if anyone is even home. Often, the only reason you’re the target is because you happened to be there. Which. Mostly you just have to learn to not take it personally.

Now, when Jeff is working, he does “reprimand” people when they start being very innapropriate towards me (and other female staff, I assume, tho I don’t notice it as much) and often their rambling moves in another direction. And he doesn’t let threats go unaddressed, even if they are empty and such. So. I like working with Jeff. Not only is he really good with the patients, but he’s also really good at being a tall man who will tackle someone to the floor before letting them hurt someone else 🙂 Sometimes it’s good to have boys around. And yeah, that might be totally sexist. However, a 6’2″ guy- even a skinny one like him- holds more “power” in the eyes of most patients, than a 5’2″ girl who looks like she’s 18. So. It’s just a fact of life. Yes, I can hold my own in many situations, but the point is that someone is gonna think twice before attacking Jeff, or about attacking me with jeff around, than they would if it was just me. Of course, it’s all situational. Which is the scary part of nite shift….it’s not just patient attitudes that you need to worry about. The staff goes a long LONG way in instigating and/or de escalating things. lah.

Anyways. So. That’s the five of us. Unless McDidiot’s not able to work. Then I have no idea who they’ll get. As of now, if staffing stays as it is on the grid, I will be teching on the C/A unit yaaaay! Cuz after running around as Grace all day, I’m pretty sure I’m not gonna wanna float, especially with census high and staffing low.

And maybe I’ll make it thru another shift without quitting my job. *rolls eyes*