Nurse Jobs London

I arrived on Sunday afternoon, and as usual, I got lost and wandered about for awhile before I found where I was supposed to stay until my apartment was ready. Part of that was Google’s fault for making their maps and directions more convoluted and backwards than usual. By the time I got there I was feeling completely horrid; somehow, while loading my car, I’d managed to get myself a pretty good back spasm. So I thought, anyway.

I’d been told to go over to the hospital staffing office and ask for the traveler packet, so I dutifully did so, even though I was feeling worse by the minute, only to be told “We don’t have any. They haven’t been giving them to us to give you.” Well, that was useless, I thought, and dragged myself back to my car. By this time I hurt everywhere, not only my back, but all over, with a pounding headache and a spaced-out feeling I couldn’t figure out. I realized I hadn’t had anything much to eat all day, so I thought I’d run over to Wal-Mart, right across the street from the hotel, grab something, and go back and hole up in my room. Which is exactly what I did. When I got back there it suddenly occurred to me what my problem was; I’d had my flu shot on Friday and was having the first and only reaction I’d ever had to one. So I medicated myself, ate, and wrapped up in a blanket for the rest of the evening, feeling nothing short of hideous.

Monday morning I got up feeling mostly okay, just a little tired. I went to the hospital as instructed, expecting to meet the person billing herself as “nurse recruiter” in HR. Instead, I was directed back to the staffing office, where a couple of bewildered schedulers were with three equally bewildered travelers. After some frantic phone calls, it was finally decided that we should go to the HR office, which is in a huge shopping center about 3 miles from the hospital. We were given directions (which turned out to be largely bogus) and all piled into one nurse’s van. When we got to the office, the lights were on but the door was locked and no one was there. We stood outside in the dark and cold trying to figure out what to do, until finally one of us took charge and started making phone calls.and getting voicemails! Eventually she managed to get hold of someone in administration, who informed us we were supposed to be back at the hospital in HR!!! So we piled back into the van and went back to the hospital, laughing because it beat being angry, and eventually managed to find the HR office and the “nurse recruiter,” who turned out to be an uppity blonde 20-something with major attitude. Her first words to us were, “You’re late!” We know, we said, attempting to explain what had happened, but she didn’t seem to want to hear it. We had obviously messed up her agenda and she was going to let us know about it. She took pictures for our badges and sent us to the education center around the corner.

At last we were where we were supposed to be! We got started with the innumerable tests that every hospital demands–OSHA, HIPAA, safety, patient rights, pharmacology, etc. etc.–only to be interrupted by another blonde 20-something, this one pleasant and earnest, who wanted to know what had happened earlier and who had sent not only us, but at least half of the other orientees, to the wrong places. She took copious notes and promised us “things will get straightened out.”

And the screwups continued. At lunchtime, three of our little group climbed into someone’s car and headed for the place we’d been told to go to for our drug screen.to which, it turned out, we had been given more bogus directions! But we found it, duly peed in cups, and headed on back, swooping into KFC for a snack before the afternoon’s LOOOOOOOOONG computer learning session, on a program I’ve used before.

(To be continued)