Shut Up!!

I have said this over and over and over. Don't fucking drink and drive. I am so tired of this shit. There is a national group called the Red Hats. Several of our nurses are members. You have to be over 50 to be 'part of the club.' They go out, have dinner, movies... whatever old women do on their nights off. I'm thinking that last night the Red Hats must have sponsored a kegger and not given rides home. Between 7pm and 1130pm I had about 12 traumas. The majority of them were women over 50 drunk as shit who hit stationary objects (jersey walls, trees, parked cars). Let me just tell you... old women are a pain in my ass!!! They want this and that done, you can't move them too fast, they want you to come introduce yourself everytime you walk near their bedside and they want EVERYONE called to know where they are. Let me tell you.... when I don't have 50 billion traumas coming in back to back I am a bit more accommodating.... but last night I was lucky to just keep my peeps straight. They are also professionals with the 'Nurse, Nuuuurse, NUURRRRSSSSEEE' screech. But they won't tell you what they want... they want you to 'come here.'

Little did they know that my smiling face was there giving them the finger and pointing the finger gun at my head and softly saying 'shut up, just shut the fuck up!' The one thing I can say is that none of them puked. Thank GOD!

You know what pissed me off?!?! As busy as we were I could not get the CC to put us on diversion. The patients kept on coming, and so did the traumas. It got to the point that I couldn't move trauma patients out because there were no beds..... but there were still traumas coming. (including a GSW to the shoulder who I had to make wait in the hallway) I thought we were on diversion and asked for all but multi-system trauma diversion. The CC said that the Doctors didn't feel like we needed to go on diversion. ARRRUUUGGGHHHH!!!

I get to risk my license for these fuckers who are making $200,000 a year easy and don't want to miss out on the extra per pt billing they get to do by going on diversion. I guess they figure that its just the nurse's ass on the line if something goes wrong with these people. If something gets missed or the patients charting doesn't meet standard of care. Ummm.. yeah, thats one of the reasons that I am not staying full time. The CC's response??? 'If you can't take the heat...' My response...'look motherfucker (obviously I was pissed at this point) I HAVE taken the heat, and am the only nurse you can get to come in here on nights like this. I worked too damn hard for my license to have some cocky son of a bitch in a white coat dictate to me what is and is not safe nursing care. Now put us on fucking diversion before I walk out of here and leave you on your own!' Not the most tactful response, but it got my point across. I got diversion, and a thank you from the CC at the end of the night.

I'm thinking of calling in sick tonight.... as the cop so brilliantly put it, if they don't care about me doing more that turning over the trauma room, then why should I care if they are short another nurse tonight.... god knows I need a mental health day!

The problem with that... I feel bad about calling in when I AM sick, I very rarely call in sick or not. UGH.... I hate integrity sometimes!