Nurse Jobs London

After the first day I hoped things would get better. On the second day we were in computer lab doing our mandatory education units, when the blonde from the office came in to tell us that those who’d had their pics made for badges the day before would have to pose again, as the file was somehow corrupted. “Is anyone surprised?” she asked, and I have to admit we all laughed. In between doing the computer learning modules, there was a lot of information trading about hospitals; I’ve found that traveler orientation is one of the best places to find out about such.

In the afternoon there was instruction on the electronic med administration program, which was the same one I used on the last assignment, so that, at least, was a piece of cake. In the middle of that I got a call from my recruiter asking me if I was all set to move into my new apartment that day. Uh, no, I was told that it wouldn’t be ready until Wednesday so I hadn’t planned to move on Tuesday, and besides, I was not planning to move in the dark. I did go and get the key and look at it, though, and take in what was in my car. It proved to be small, but quite nice. I finished moving in the next day, after returning to what passes for home to retrieve the rest of my stuff.

I was supposed to have internet, and for some reason, I couldn’t get connected. Calls and calls, to the landlady and to Comcast (grrrrr), and it wasn’t until FRIDAY that I found out it had never been connected in that particular unit. The earliest they could promise me was Monday, but they did say they’d make an effort to get someone there on Saturday. I felt like I was in exile!

Meanwhile, I went Thursday for my first day of unit orientation. This is what a friend of mine refers to as a “hot sheets” unit.mostly 23 hour observation patients, low risk, for stress tests and the occasional heart cath. (When I asked her what “hot sheets unit” meant, she said, “Oh, you know, the kind where you can have three different patients in the same bed in a 24 hour period!” Yep, I know.) The patients are easy enough, but the paperwork is HORRID! And this hospital is not yet computer charting. (Supposedly that’s coming in February) I worked again Friday night, still orienting, and I go in for the last night of that tonight. This coming Friday I’m on my own, and actually the unit will be run on weekend nights almost entirely by travelers.

And Saturday I finally got back online!

Last night I went to work and was informed that I was to float to a certain unit. It wasn’t my turn to float, and I said so pretty strongly, but I had to go. When I got to the unit I was told to go to, I couldn’t find anyone to tell me where to go or who to get report from. They didn’t seem to be expecting me. The supervisor came up and I reiterated that it wasn’t my turn to be pulled and I wasn’t happy, and that this particular unit wasn’t expecting me. She called staffing, who said I was indeed supposed to be there. But she got all defensive and said she would go look in the “pull book” on my unit. I said never mind, I’m here, I’ll just figure out what I’m supposed to do, but she insisted. So I went to try to find the shift leader to find out what to do, and he informed me that I was supposed to be on another unit, which he was also shift leader for, and directed me there. By the time I got there, I was already, as we say in Tennessee, a day late and a dollar short. I found the nurse I was to get report from, who said it had been a horrible day and this was probably the heaviest group on the floor. Wonderful. So I got report and tried to figure out really quickly where things were and how the floor worked. That was harder than expected, as, unlike the unit I’d been pulled to the week before, it was not a particularly friendly place. But I muddled along and did the best I could. I did my assessments, my blood sugars, did my own vital signs because the one CNA on the floor was nowhere I could see, and started my ten o’clock meds. I remembered that I needed to draw labs from one patient so I went to look for the label and couldn’t find it, decided I would have to order and print the label, and was doing so when along came the supervisor. She said the shift leader would be coming to get report on my patients “and you can go home and you can talk to [the manager] in the morning.” I was shocked and upset for a minute and she went on to say that “she wouldn’t have someone in the hospital who didn’t trust her.” ??? Oh well. I knew I had screwed up, made the wrong person mad, and would get my contract canceled. I went downstairs and cleaned out my locker and went on back to my apartment. I probably should have been upset, but I was relieved. I packed up all my clothes before I went to bed and decided I’d do the rest today.

Only today the manager didn’t call me. I thought that was pretty weird, but I assumed that if she hadn’t I should go in to work tonight, so I did. That’s when I learned she had called my agency and terminated my contract. Damn nice of her to call and tell me! But pretty consistent with the lack of class this hospital has shown since I’ve been here.

So what now? Well, for the immediate future, back to what passes for home, regroup, and decide what I want to do next. I’ve pretty much decided to move to Virginia, probably to a city that’s become one of my favorites, but I don’t know if I’ll take a permanent job or travel from there. It might be ideal, at least for awhile, to find a travel position two or three hours from there, get my schedule in a block (pretty easy if you work nights and/or weekends) and come home in between times. But what I’d really like to do is work in a cardiology practice, a stress or electrophysiology lab, or even cath lab. I guess I’d even settle for a cardiology floor if it came right down to it.

Anyway, Merry Christmas, y’all!