Working in a ward can be dangerous. At least, it is if you’re as clumsy as me! I collect bumps and bruises like others collect stamps or coins. My shins are a permanent collection of purple and blue bruises, as are my outer thighs. I even have a bruises on the inner side of my upper arm. If there’s something to walk into, I manage it. If there’s something to trip over, I’ll find it. Heck, I can trip over air! I’ve managed to dent my forehead and cut my head in the past. Sometimes I’ll hurt myself but have no marks to show for it, like the time I almost smashed my patella to smithereens walking into the bed frame. I almost vomited it was that painful. My only consolation was to look forward to the impending beauty of a horrendous bruise. Except it didn’t happen. Disappointed is a slight understatement! I earned that bruise! 😂
Yesterday was verging on the shift from hell. We were very short staffed, both by nurses and by hca’s. By the afternoon, I was the only hca on shift. That’s a bit difficult when there’s a cohort bay that I need to work in, but the other bays still require assistance. Luckily, the big guy in charge (as in he’s high up on the management ladder) finally agreed we could close the extra bay.
It didn’t help ease the work pressure though, as it meant discharging around a dozen patients, transferring the patients from the closing bay to the now empty beds, and accepting admissions for the remainder of the empty beds. Which in turn means masses of paperwork to complete, beds/patients to move, bed management software to update, TTO’S to chase along with the usual hourly/2 hourly documentation to be done.
We managed it, but with a lot of huffing and puffing from stressed out nurses, a few tears of frustration and stress, and wishing the clock would fast forward to the end of the shift. As the night shift was going to experience the same staff shortage as we did, spirits were not high. I think they almost got adequate staff numbers after my shift finished, but with some potentially very difficult patients on the ward, it would have gone one way or the other. I am just glad I wasn’t on the night shift last night.
Almost all NHS Trusts are experiencing staff shortages. Staff leave frequently, but the recruitment processes to replace them rarely seem to happen until after they’ve left. I find this very peculiar. Once someone has said they plan to leave, and could they please have a reference, the managers ought to advertise the positions. By the time interviews have taken place, references and pre-employment checks done, there may be a couple of weeks difference in the employee leaving and the new recruitment starting. Instead, it takes several months of waiting for a newbie to start. I also find it absurd that a member of staff leaving a ward to join another ward in the same Trust, has to go through the same recruitment processes – it doesn’t take almost 2 months to ask for, and receive a reference. Other than that, there shouldn’t be any need for the same in-depth processes to be undertaken for a same-Trust position.
We do have some new recruits starting soon. It’ll help in the respect of having bodies to cover the annual leave and sickness absences we’ve got just now. I believe there’s at least 2 hca’s starting. I’ve been allocated as a ‘buddy’, where the newbies will shadow me as I’m working. They’re classed as supernumerary for the first month or 2, so aren’t officially counted in the shift numbers. This is great, as it means that we can often be asked to lend a member of staff to another ward. Supernumerary staff can’t be sent to other wards, and we can’t leave them on their own without a ‘buddy’, so sometimes we are technically over staffed, but on paper we aren’t. A win-win situation for us 😉
We seem to be getting rid of the shit nurses now 😂 Only one or 2 left, but perhaps they’ll start to pull their weight and actually learn that to be part of a successful team, they need to muck in with everyone else. We don’t really need a repeat of the other morning when one nurse was virtually screaming at another nurse, entertaining as it was lol.
I was exhausted last night and was in bed and asleep before 10.30pm. I woke at 05.15, realised the alarm hadn’t gone off so it wasn’t a work day, and promptly fell asleep again. I awoke again around 7am and thought about getting up, but dozed again for an hour. Even with the sound sleep I had, plus the additional hour or 2, I’ve felt very tired today. My knees have been achy and my muscle have been spasming a lot. I’m definitely getting old 😨 I spent the day finished off my clay art piece. I’m quite pleased with it but as always, there’s things I’d do differently or change. From what I gather, this is perfectly normal for creative people as they are their own worst critic. I very much am my worst critic, and never feel 100% happy with whatever I create, even when people have said how beautiful my creations have been. As the husband says – I really need to work on my self confidence. Is anyone aware if where I can get some? Is it available on prescription? 😂
Work day tomorrow, so early night for Cinderella here 😉 and I’ll leave you with a photo of my bruised leg (definitely not models legs!) And the offending obstacle ☺
Ignore the indentation from the seam of my jeans and my plucked chicken lookalike skin 🙈
You see that little donut shaped bit with the lever next to it? Those are lethal!
The life of me as I live it 