Nurse Jobs London

I’ve been here in Capital City for two weeks, and it seems like I’ve been here forever. Part of it is that I was here as a traveler a couple of years back, and I’m living in the same part of town I lived in then, only south of the main drag instead of north. I know pretty much where everything is, what supermarkets are where, and (very important!) where Wal-Mart is. I wasn’t as familiar with this side of the main drag, so I was delighted to find things like a neighborhood Indian restaurant and grocery store right up the street. I know where the libraries are and have decided I like the older branch better than the new one. I’ve found the post office. And best of all, my new apartment is just over a mile from the hospital.

My apartment is in a townhouse community and is spacious and quiet. I wanted a townhouse because I’m tired of people stomping around overhead and didn’t want to live on a third floor somewhere. I’d actually been looking at another complex, but when I found this one I knew it was right. It’s not a huge community, and though there are quite a few kids, it’s not overrun and they seem to be well-behaved. I couldn’t imagine living in an adults-only community! Downstairs I have a kitchen, dining area, and sunken living room with a *working* fireplace. Upstairs are two bedrooms and two bathrooms. I have a private patio and even a small garden plot
(and yes, I do plan a tiny kitchen garden!) as well as a small area out front where I can plant flowers.

OK, the hospital. It’s HCA, which has its pluses and minuses as they all do. Decent benefits and retirement plan, pretty reasonable working conditions, and this particular one has an excellent reputation. The minuses are an antiquated computer charting system which I am already familiar with from other HCA hospitals, and maybe not the most up-to-date equipment. But everyone has been very positive and very welcoming. Probably the only place I’ve felt that welcomed was the one where I was last summer. I’ve done my mandatory week of nursing orientation and Sunday night I start actually working. Amazingly, they’re not making me orient on days for a week either; I start right in on nights. I never could figure out why most places make you do day shift orientation first; it’s a completely different animal from nights. One excuse sometimes given is “so you get to know the docs” but you don’t see much of them during the day because you’re busy running yourself to death. But then you have to learn a whole new routine when you go on nights, and that loses you another week. I’m delighted someone has actually seen the light!

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!