so encouraging. His video today was really optimistic too.
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so encouraging. His video today was really optimistic too.
Catscankim
Well-Known Member
Today was a clean out my locker and leave day. I didn't do it, but I was close. It is so bad there at the hospital lately. I work in the ER CT scanner so I am close to all that is going on over there.
Our waiting room is packed 24-7. Our whole er is full. ppl are treating it like it is a covid testing site and lying about being sick, or even worse, calling 911 and getting brought in by ambulance, which they think guarantees them a room and a test.
They call and call and call wanting to know wait times...Ok, well we have ppl in the waiting room for 12 hours now if that gives you an indication...
People are coming in sick with real problems and it is getting missed. We had a 47 year old man go into cardiac arrest and die last night in the waiting room. He walked in with "throat pain". Turned out to really be chest pain.
Every nurse this morning was in the break room threatening to walk out. By the end of the day I was saying the same as a CT tech because I cannot run a one man show in a busy hospital. People are dying because the emergency room cannot keep up with all these patients walking in for non-emergencies.
Where normally we have 8 ER nurses and two medics, two CT techs, and three trauma nurses...we had 2 ER Nurses, no medics, 1 CT tech, and 1 trauma nurse. 21 beds full in the ER, plus all the hallways, and 44 patients in the waiting room.
I was walking down an empty hall today and the infection control nurse came out of nowhere and said "mask up please". SERIOUSLY??? Two years into it and three shots, obviously the masks aren't solving it.
All this woman does is walk around like the secret society of mask enforcers. She worked from home for the past two years sending out "stay safe emails", and now she pops up with no clue what goes on in reality, in an empty hallway to tell me to pull up my mask. Two years of this and all I did was pull down a mask for face id on my phone. BY MYSELF. I was in my CT scan room BY MYSELF putting a new sheet on the bed. This **** walked by...backed up to the door, and motioned for me to pull up my mask. I'm like FIRE ME FOR IT and hit the button to close the door on her.
Our pediatric ER shut down for almost a week because of a mass call out. It almost happened with our adult er last week.
I literally just got off the phone with a friend of mine who is a nurse at another hospital, it is the same situation there. The difference is that we are trauma. We have regressed as a civilization I think. Administration just sits around fat and happy. I asked where management was....they are all on vacation for the holiday. Well most, I did have a radiology director siting today. So I guess she was there. But I think her biggest decision made today was matching her heels to her outfit...
AND NOW...they started closing entrances to the hospital again like back in the beginning of covid, so there is only one entrance open. OK great idea for a looooong hospital. If someone is looking for directions to the cafeteria, I always tell them that its about a 1/4 mile down and make a right... My friend brought her pregnant daughter to there who was having contractions. She called me. It was an emergency and she didn't know the layout of the hospital. I told her to go to any entrance and tell them that it was an "OB emergency". Doors were all locked because some nitwit decided that this was a covid cure apparently. I had no idea they just shut down all the entrances again. I just left there and they were all open.
I told her to find the Emergency Room entrance and just start banging on the door. I'm on the phone with her an hour away trying to give directions from the location at the hospital parking lot where I "thought" she was. I called the ER charge nurse to let her know she was coming. They got her in and she ended up having an emergency c-section within an hour to a preemie baby. She was that close to losing him.
I worked overnight shifts last week. The girl who was at the clerical desk was like "oh god this woman again" when the phone rang. I'm like "I got it" and I picked up the phone. Its this woman who was out in the waiting room who somehow got the direct line into the ER who had been calling over and over and over. Mind you, there is literally no staff.
I put her on speakerphone so the cop can hear her. Her complaint: there is a homeless man on the bench with no mask on. "Don't you have mask rules? I saw your website and it said you have mask rules. He doesn't have a mask on and I want him removed."
OUTSIDE. THREE O'CLOCK in the morning for her 30 y/o son (inside in the waiting room) that was there for a possible std. I'm like "ma'am, he was just discharged and is just waiting for a ride." "screaming screaming cursing cursing". "MA'AM you can call the nursing supervisor with your complaint, otherwise if you call in here again I will have the police remove you" Silence.
Then she started posting on facebook LOL. I'm like...she's gotta fall asleep eventually LOL.
Our waiting room is packed 24-7. Our whole er is full. ppl are treating it like it is a covid testing site and lying about being sick, or even worse, calling 911 and getting brought in by ambulance, which they think guarantees them a room and a test.
They call and call and call wanting to know wait times...Ok, well we have ppl in the waiting room for 12 hours now if that gives you an indication...
People are coming in sick with real problems and it is getting missed. We had a 47 year old man go into cardiac arrest and die last night in the waiting room. He walked in with "throat pain". Turned out to really be chest pain.
Every nurse this morning was in the break room threatening to walk out. By the end of the day I was saying the same as a CT tech because I cannot run a one man show in a busy hospital. People are dying because the emergency room cannot keep up with all these patients walking in for non-emergencies.
Where normally we have 8 ER nurses and two medics, two CT techs, and three trauma nurses...we had 2 ER Nurses, no medics, 1 CT tech, and 1 trauma nurse. 21 beds full in the ER, plus all the hallways, and 44 patients in the waiting room.
I was walking down an empty hall today and the infection control nurse came out of nowhere and said "mask up please". SERIOUSLY??? Two years into it and three shots, obviously the masks aren't solving it.
All this woman does is walk around like the secret society of mask enforcers. She worked from home for the past two years sending out "stay safe emails", and now she pops up with no clue what goes on in reality, in an empty hallway to tell me to pull up my mask. Two years of this and all I did was pull down a mask for face id on my phone. BY MYSELF. I was in my CT scan room BY MYSELF putting a new sheet on the bed. This **** walked by...backed up to the door, and motioned for me to pull up my mask. I'm like FIRE ME FOR IT and hit the button to close the door on her.
Our pediatric ER shut down for almost a week because of a mass call out. It almost happened with our adult er last week.
I literally just got off the phone with a friend of mine who is a nurse at another hospital, it is the same situation there. The difference is that we are trauma. We have regressed as a civilization I think. Administration just sits around fat and happy. I asked where management was....they are all on vacation for the holiday. Well most, I did have a radiology director siting today. So I guess she was there. But I think her biggest decision made today was matching her heels to her outfit...
AND NOW...they started closing entrances to the hospital again like back in the beginning of covid, so there is only one entrance open. OK great idea for a looooong hospital. If someone is looking for directions to the cafeteria, I always tell them that its about a 1/4 mile down and make a right... My friend brought her pregnant daughter to there who was having contractions. She called me. It was an emergency and she didn't know the layout of the hospital. I told her to go to any entrance and tell them that it was an "OB emergency". Doors were all locked because some nitwit decided that this was a covid cure apparently. I had no idea they just shut down all the entrances again. I just left there and they were all open.
I told her to find the Emergency Room entrance and just start banging on the door. I'm on the phone with her an hour away trying to give directions from the location at the hospital parking lot where I "thought" she was. I called the ER charge nurse to let her know she was coming. They got her in and she ended up having an emergency c-section within an hour to a preemie baby. She was that close to losing him.
I worked overnight shifts last week. The girl who was at the clerical desk was like "oh god this woman again" when the phone rang. I'm like "I got it" and I picked up the phone. Its this woman who was out in the waiting room who somehow got the direct line into the ER who had been calling over and over and over. Mind you, there is literally no staff.
I put her on speakerphone so the cop can hear her. Her complaint: there is a homeless man on the bench with no mask on. "Don't you have mask rules? I saw your website and it said you have mask rules. He doesn't have a mask on and I want him removed."
OUTSIDE. THREE O'CLOCK in the morning for her 30 y/o son (inside in the waiting room) that was there for a possible std. I'm like "ma'am, he was just discharged and is just waiting for a ride." "screaming screaming cursing cursing". "MA'AM you can call the nursing supervisor with your complaint, otherwise if you call in here again I will have the police remove you" Silence.
Then she started posting on facebook LOL. I'm like...she's gotta fall asleep eventually LOL.
Catscankim
I would like to tell you that I always fall back on the meaning in the serenity prayer but I know that not to be true. I would be better off if it was though. My nose has lots of cuts to spite my face. However, since I believe in double standards and always told my kids to do what I say and not what I do, The serenity prayer might be better advice. Like the old dirty harry movie points out (not saying you are a man) "A man has got to know his limitations." Make sure you take care of your needs in all this as well as needs of others and good luck.
Cheers
gww
I would like to tell you that I always fall back on the meaning in the serenity prayer but I know that not to be true. I would be better off if it was though. My nose has lots of cuts to spite my face. However, since I believe in double standards and always told my kids to do what I say and not what I do, The serenity prayer might be better advice. Like the old dirty harry movie points out (not saying you are a man) "A man has got to know his limitations." Make sure you take care of your needs in all this as well as needs of others and good luck.
Cheers
gww
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@Catscankim
I'm sorry that I have nothing comforting to say to you.
I think people and systems have broken to the point that desperation has set in. People are reacting. Grasping at straws in order to get what they want. Our medical system certainly wasn't perfect before the pandemic....but it worked far better than now with all the short staffing and other issues.
From reading your descriptive posts over the months, It sounds like you are an outstanding employee; and no doubt had a big contribution to the success and stability that has been meted out in your department.
My perception is that this is happening all across the US...aka unnecessary ER visits due to people who have suspected covid symptoms and either panic, or feel entitled to a test because their can't get on anywhere else? If so, then I have to ask where is the leadership? Any leadership....a mayor, a county health department official.....anything?! A hospital spokesman calling a press conference explain to the public when to seek ER services, when to monitor at home, etc.
Is anyone, anywhere, taking the initiative to inform the public how to proceed? Yes, I know there will always be people who don't listen...but in our extended neighborhoods, we have people who trying to get tested before returning to work and other valid reasons, trusting any fly-by-night operation that springs up in the corner of a parking lot claiming to be a new testing site....and people who now think they were scammed for the ID information. Honestly. On social media, I finally had to call out an individual who kept telling people to come to their free testing site because she never identified who they were, what their qualifications were, what lab did the tests and if were they certified!
If I were even a small town mayor, I'd be collecting information and sending it out to my people in any format feasible....from posters at bus stops, restaurants, churches, fliers in mail boxes, phones and emails. It's not happening in San Diego. (I don't count any little 5 second blurb at the end of a news item....because they are trite and un-detailed, and therefore lacking authority)
I'm sorry that I have nothing comforting to say to you.
I think people and systems have broken to the point that desperation has set in. People are reacting. Grasping at straws in order to get what they want. Our medical system certainly wasn't perfect before the pandemic....but it worked far better than now with all the short staffing and other issues.
From reading your descriptive posts over the months, It sounds like you are an outstanding employee; and no doubt had a big contribution to the success and stability that has been meted out in your department.
My perception is that this is happening all across the US...aka unnecessary ER visits due to people who have suspected covid symptoms and either panic, or feel entitled to a test because their can't get on anywhere else? If so, then I have to ask where is the leadership? Any leadership....a mayor, a county health department official.....anything?! A hospital spokesman calling a press conference explain to the public when to seek ER services, when to monitor at home, etc.
Is anyone, anywhere, taking the initiative to inform the public how to proceed? Yes, I know there will always be people who don't listen...but in our extended neighborhoods, we have people who trying to get tested before returning to work and other valid reasons, trusting any fly-by-night operation that springs up in the corner of a parking lot claiming to be a new testing site....and people who now think they were scammed for the ID information. Honestly. On social media, I finally had to call out an individual who kept telling people to come to their free testing site because she never identified who they were, what their qualifications were, what lab did the tests and if were they certified!
If I were even a small town mayor, I'd be collecting information and sending it out to my people in any format feasible....from posters at bus stops, restaurants, churches, fliers in mail boxes, phones and emails. It's not happening in San Diego. (I don't count any little 5 second blurb at the end of a news item....because they are trite and un-detailed, and therefore lacking authority)
cerelife
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THIS...ALL OF THIS!!!
Our ER waiting room has been packed for the past 2 weeks - standing room only and people lined up out the door to get inside. Our top number so far was 72 people...just in the ER waiting room alone! Trying to get a patient for CT is like navigating Bourbon Street on a Saturday night, lol!
And what is it with patient's ordering from Waitr, Doordash, and UberEats while in the ER waiting room?? It's hard to take your 10 out of 10 abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting seriously when I come to get you for your CT Abdomen Pelvis and find you shoving pizza in your mouth like you're the Cookie Monster.
I work both upstairs and downstairs so I do inpatients, outpatients, and ER patients. We had an outpatient call about her routine CT that was scheduled for later that day asking if she needed to reschedule because she just tested positive for Covid. YES!! Of course you do, and we transferred her to the scheduling line to do so. BUT she showed up for her appointment anyway!! She LIED to the screeners and to registration about her Covid+ status and actually made it all the way upstairs to the Radiology waiting room where she didn't disclose her Covid+ status to the receptionist there either. As soon as we saw her orders we pulled her out of the waiting room and asked her why she came in despite testing positive for Covid.
Y'all ready for this? "Because this was a good time for me and I didn't feel like rescheduling." And THEN she had the audacity to be angry when we refused to do her CT!! Her logic was that she was already there and we were already exposed, so we should just do it already. Nope, we are NOT rewarding you for being a horrible person. Security will escort you out and you will be reported for lying to staff about your Covid+ status.
@Catscankim @cerelife and any others reading this that are working in hospitals and health care settings - thank you. Thank you for working through exhaustion, with rude and entitled patients, and navigating the impossible days - over and over and over. The ones that truly need you are so grateful, and so are we who are not sick knowing that if we, or someone we love, do need you you will be there. I'm sorry for everyone that there are 'those people', and more of them all the time, who make it all so difficult for you and, to a lesser extent, all of us. You are appreciated.
I want to just echo this. Thank you to all of our healthcare workers who have continued to help despite how challenging people have been. I can't imagine the mental and physical toll it has taken on you all and I am so grateful for your dedication to helping people. I really do hope that things start to slow down, and that you get some type of respite from this nightmarish situation.
Catscankim
Well-Known Member
omg, 72 in the waiting room?
When I was in xray school I was told to always make sure that you have the correct patient because they will answer to anything just to get seen. Since then I have never had that problem really...until now. I swear if I walk out to the waiting room and call a name more than once and nobody answers, SOMEBODY will always answer next. I start walking them back to CT and talking to them and checking their wrist band and asking questions....HELLO you are not John Doe. Waste my time, waste my steps. Now I gotta walk them back to the waiting room.
Haven't noticed the food delivery problem LOL. But they do usually bring their own food with them. Since McDonalds is the last stop before the hospital, the whole room smells like hamburgers and fries.
Today was really bad too, it was just more bearable since I had a good transporter.
Everybody wants to leave for these high-paying travel jobs. Personally I think its stupid. Yeah they get paid well...for now. These jobs arent going to last forever. It is eventually going to get back to normal (I hope). Traveling sucks. I did it a long time ago traveling locally. You gotta get used to a lot of different personalities and its only for a few weeks and then start over. Distance traveling....you gotta deal with housing etc. You never just go home kick your shoes off and play with your pet. So there's a shortage everywhere for people who want to just have a job and stay put.
We phone interviewed a girl the other day. She wants to work 3-12 hour shifts. We don't have that. That is not what was posted. She got pissy that our variable position posted doesn't work for her and these are the hours that she wants. We need evening/weekend techs. She wasn't even experienced and making demands on an interview. Buh-bye LOL. If she didn't get all pissy on the phone then we probably would have been willing to work something out.
I forget who asked, but yes we have a union. They are weak. Florida is a "right to work state" so somehow that makes everybody represented in our union whether or not you are IN the union. But I don't know why anybody pays to be in our union because like I said, they are weak. Throughout this whole pandemic, while everybody is leaving for these high-paying jobs and leaving us super short-staffed...the union negotiated that we could get a whopping $200 per extra shift. Well, we work 5/8hour shifts. So how many shifts can you do before you get burnt out and not give a crap about a lousy $200 at the end of the day?
So now we have two techs that are reaping the benefits of a travel job that the hospital is paying them a ton of money to be there for a 13 week assignment. I believe they are getting $4600 a week. To break it down, after a 40 hour 5-day work week, we can only possibly accrue another $400 with our "bonus" by doing 7 days instead of 5 (unless you are suicide and work a bunch of doubles), but the hospital will pay this money to a traveler. One of them renewed his contract this week and the other traveler was like "I really love you guys but this place sucks". Oh, I forgot to mention, that they also took away our bonus a few weeks ago. Corporate, located in another state, determined that we don't need it, and it terminated in the middle of a pay period, after people already signed up for bonus shifts, that they are no longer getting a bonus for.
MO was a right to work state for a short time but then it was put on the ballot and rescinded by the voters by a two to one margin. Nurses however were knocked out of being able to be unions due to state supreme court saying they were management cause they could instruct orderlies. We all know in the bigger conglomerates who management really is though don't we?
I hope everything gets back to normal for you or even better, better then normal. Just maybe some good might come out of all this and some of the issues you speak of don't fall away but get addressed. It is hard to say how it might all work out and worth keeping your fingers crossed.
I could not agree more with you that travel sucks and coming to the same home every night is worth quite a bit.
Good luck
gww
I hope everything gets back to normal for you or even better, better then normal. Just maybe some good might come out of all this and some of the issues you speak of don't fall away but get addressed. It is hard to say how it might all work out and worth keeping your fingers crossed.
I could not agree more with you that travel sucks and coming to the same home every night is worth quite a bit.
Good luck
gww
Oh, @Catscankim , my heart is breaking for you. Your anger and frustration and grief is just pouring out of my computer screen. Props to you and all your colleagues. In the last week alone, one co-worker called 9 hospitals before she found one to help her husband's angina. My best friend called 4 urgent care centers for his husband's blood clot (hip to ankle), and an older family member is severely dehydrated (gastrointestinal issues) to the point of delusions and no hospital in town will admit her. Is anyone tracking the death rate, not from COVID, but from, I don't know what the term is, a broken system?
I hope you give yourself lots of treats outside of work whether it's petting a pet, binging on Netflix (Schitt's Creek will cure depression), walking in the woods, ice cream. Doing something with my hands takes my mind off of life, helloooo soap and lotion bars!
My favorite meme from 2020 was "When the pandemic is over, can all the essential workers quarantine while the rest of you all run the world for a bit."
Sending hugs,
cerelife
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Yep, this has become a huge problem with us as well. I could walk out to the ER waiting room at any given time and call "Mr. Supercalifragilistic" and four or five people will raise their hands. Monday I called for (fake names, obviously) Ms. Huxtable and a woman said "That's me" and hopped into my wheelchair. Before I could even lean over and check her armband another woman rushed up and insisted that SHE was Ms. Huxtable, telling the other woman to get the hush out of HER wheelchair! The woman in the wheelchair (whose name bore absolutely NO resemblance to the name I called) refused to get out of the chair because "I'm sick and I need to be seen next." She hadn't even been triaged yet!!
Why do people think that this is a good idea?? What if we as healthcare workers slip up in our exhaustion and treat you as the person you claim to be? Ms. Huxtable was here for chest pain and I was getting her for a CTA chest. The other woman was here for abdominal pain and no CT had been ordered for her yet, but eventually the ER doc ordered a CT of her Abdomen/Pelvis with contrast but she was allergic to iodine so it had to be changed to a non-contrast study.
By answering to the wrong name just to be seen more quickly this woman ran the risk of not only having the wrong body part scanned but also of going into anaphylactic shock due to her allergy.
Catscankim
Well-Known Member
I made Strawberry Jam last week and brought them to work. They were such a hit that I just got done making more LOL. Who knew that 10 little jars of jelly would make ppl so happy?!
My sister just told me that my niece is on day six of quarantine from covid (not sick, just tested positive)...I'm like "that sounds lovely" LOL
Although after tomorrow, I have four days off. I told my boss that when she makes the schedule, that I want some time off, and I didn't care when or how, I just need 4 straight days however she managed to do it. I'm so grateful....
OMG, I was outside of the lobby waiting for my food delivery. The ER director was out there in green OR scrubs and heels trying to get an old lady out of the car. Gonna be honest here, I stood on the other side of the pole pretending to look at my phone LOL. Then I noticed that she was really struggling and had a somewhat unconcious patient...trying to get her into a wheelchair from a car. I don't know how this director ended outside with scrubs and high heels on, but it happened. I tried to ignore it as long as I could I WANT MY FOOD LOL.
Finally I'm like "do you need help?" All I kept thinking was "please say no. please say no....door dash is going to drop my food off on the ground like they did last week". She screams out SOMEBODY GET ME A STRETCHER!
UGGGGHH this is an actual thing
I run into the ER ambulance entrance and yell that we need help outside. I kid you not, everybody scattered. (food is very much still on my mind). I finally found ONE nurse who didn't hear me the first time and say we need help. She screeches....."I can't. I just can't. I have too much to do. Too many responsibilities. I can't. Just can't. I can't." and walks away. This is YOUR director!!! LOL.
I can't find a stretcher because they are all occupied because the ER is full yet again. I yell for andrew in trauma (he's the bestest), and he finds a stretcher and runs out with me to help the struggling director (who we all know has no clue what to do).
We are getting this lady onto the stretcher and door dash pulls up "JUST LEAVE IT ON THE GROUND!!" Now he's confused cause I lost it on him last week because he left it on the ground LOL.
OMG @Catscankim 
! Enjoy your time off.
! Enjoy your time off.
Report from a patient's POV: On Monday, our province went into semi lockdown and cancelled surgeries and procedures again (as of September, we were "20 million procedures behind" in a province of 16 million people. Dunno how many behind we are now). I had a throat biopsy scheduled for 6:30 am yesterday, so Tuesday was spent with my doc's office playing phone tag with the hospital. They were cancelling everyone else, but prioritizing me (is that good? bad?), but my surgery eventually got moved to 12:30 pm. NO PROBLEM I'll be there!! Well, I was pretty much the only one there. Rooms and rooms and beds and beds sitting empty; the porter said they were working at maybe 30% capacity; the nurse who saw me later said they were "shut down" (perhaps they're only operating at all until the end of this week?). Our town isn't in bad shape at all; never has been throughout the pandemic, and of course we want to keep things this way. I know we could be preparing for an influx of patients, but the people in Day Surgery didn't seem to think it was a good idea to take away all of their patients in hopes that they'd be ready for people to arrive in other units. Our hospital lost less than 1% of employees due to the vaccine mandate and I've not see a report of significant numbers out sick or quarantining, but we know that things are changing by the minute. Anyway, I had a great hospital experience and am truly thankful for the system and ANYONE who works in it in any capacity. Especially @Catscankim 's Door Dash guy 
I’ve a Covid 19 test question? I’ve mild symptoms & after an online E-visit I was given a QR code to go into a clinic to pick up my rapid test. At 1st I’d thought I’d won the lottery because I could not find a rapid test within 50 miles for at least 3 days out. Anywhoo, when I went to pick up the test, I see it’s a rapid antigen vs rapid molecular test. 
The information & 10 free Covid-19 tests (5 kits) that I received from my regional health district & now the C-19 test kit I’ve was handed by my local healthcare facility are identical. They also both include documentation that say & I quote: “If you have had TWO negative tests at least 24 hours apart, you do not have Covid-19 at this time. “
Question: Why are these rapid antigen test being used if employers will not accept them? My employer doesn’t anyway. Is it because of fear of high percentage of user error, such as individual does not swab deep enough &/or follow the simple instructions to complete this home test? Or are the tests simply less reliable? TIA
The information & 10 free Covid-19 tests (5 kits) that I received from my regional health district & now the C-19 test kit I’ve was handed by my local healthcare facility are identical. They also both include documentation that say & I quote: “If you have had TWO negative tests at least 24 hours apart, you do not have Covid-19 at this time. “
Question: Why are these rapid antigen test being used if employers will not accept them? My employer doesn’t anyway. Is it because of fear of high percentage of user error, such as individual does not swab deep enough &/or follow the simple instructions to complete this home test? Or are the tests simply less reliable? TIA
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Yesterday I got my Covid test question answered in a round about way. The school district is in a crisis situation with children & adults out sick & they now accept two negative rapid antigen tests for return to school!
That's if you can find them! I don't know about Washington but here in notheast Ohio, they're selling out within 15 min of being stocked! It's so bad over here.
I got my booster yesterday.
Found out yesterday my mom and step dad in FL both have Covid. Vaxxed but not boosted. Both with ALL the health risks. 
