Guest Blogger #2

YAY! another follower wants to share their story. Enjoy! :)

i picked up a shift tonight for one of my cases. great family, i love coming in here. if i didn't have to be at the hospital, i'd come work here every night. got a call from the case coordinator earlier in the week saying that the regular mon-thur girl quit and they need me to train a nurse to take those nights. i hate training newbies...they're way to excited and full of stupid questions. and yes, there are stupid questions, but i'll save the july-august resident stories for another time.

anyways, the case coordinator sends me an email saying newbie will be coming out at 9pm for 4-5 hours. say what, mofo?!! 4 hours?! that is WAY too long. no way...this cannot happen. after i get the baby settled, i crack open my laptop, jump onto one of the neighbors unprotected wifi networks and use this time to catch up on my blog reading, send some emails, play a few rounds of words with friends with my brother-in law (who also works this horrific shift), whip up a few digital scrapbook pages and maybe, if the mood strikes, get some work done for next week's class. 4 hours with a newbie is going to put a major damper on my routine.

i call the office and let them know that i can get the training done in a hour max. thank god they go for it! fast forward to this evening. i arrive at 8:30 and have 30 minutes to get the baby asleep, start the tube feeding and hook up the monitors before newbie arrives. 9pm on the dot....she rings the doorbell. now, this particular doorbell isn't the regular "ding-dong" type...it plays a song. loudly. loud enough to wake a sleeping baby.

newbie is not so newbie.

she's in her 60's. late 60's. and she's got her super duper "i'm going to be on my feet for 12 hours" nursing shoes all shined and ready for action. i've already ditched my shoes and am running around in my socks, wishing i had brought my slippers. newbie stands there looking at me with a blank face...no introduction, no "hello"...nothing. i find this odd. most nurses are fairly chatty, but not newbie. dead silence in the hallway, so i introduce myself and suggest a tour (basically..."these are the stairs that bring you up to the baby's room") to get started. i show her around, tell her where everything is and go over the baby's situation. at one point, she takes my book light and used it to perform a thorough exam of the room. i'm not really sure what she was doing or looking for...it looked like some search technique she picked up from csi. this takes all of 25 minutes, so i grab the chart and decide to go through the paperwork with her.

she's still contributing zip to the conversation. nothing about her work history...which is usually the first thing nurses talk about...where we worked, wild stories that happened to us...absolutely nothing from newbie. i'm looking at the clock and it's 9:55. i'm ready for her to leave and comment, "wow! we're making good time here...you'll be out of here in just a few minutes!" most people would be psyched, but not newbie. her response?

wait for it...

"my ride is picking me up at 10:30." whaaaaat?! that's another 35 minutes! and why in the world do you have someone chauffeuring you around in the middle of the night?! i can feel my phone in my pocket vibrate and i know it's my turn to play words. i figure while i'm stuck with this lady, i might as well know more about her, so i start rapid fire questioning. where exactly have you worked? how long? have you ever done home care? are you a pediatric nurse? why the hell are you wearing those shoes?! okay, so i didn't ask the last one! never really got any clear answers from her. this was her FIRST home care case and she's never taken care of a patient under the age of 15. interesting. you'd think the agency might realize this wasn't a good match for a baby with a trach.

i get newbie ready to go and by the door at 10:25...just in time to see the short bus pull up to bring her home.

LOL, thanks RB - loved the story, keep them coming!