My God, today sucked.

Our hospital is currently doing a number on our hours.  Overtime is no longer able to be scheduled.  This means that we’ll be having a lot more people working 8 and 4 hour shifts rather than just the usual 12. This means our assigned groups change more often as we take on the patients of those leaving.

On top of this change, the lovely people above us decided to “tweak” the matrix as well.  Our unit and the neighboring one are now considered one single unit to staffing.  This means there are technically two nurses charging now.  Though they each tend to their own unit as before, they have to do a lot more together to figure out assignments.  While we occasionally would cover a few of their patients (and vice versa) when they were short, it is now a regular occurrence.  It sucks for us, because we are literally having to work in two different stations.  Our assigned group of patients are split onto two different sides of a floor.  It’s a long walk.  Charts are kept in different locations.  You miss your doctor rounding because you’re at the other station.  The other station can’t find you quickly.  Our poor aides have to deal, too.  Due to the “single unit” change, we now will have a total of 3 aides instead of the usual 4 when staffed as separate units.

In order to cut back on hours even more (temporarily they say), the two units are having to share one ward clerk.  It makes for a massive jam on busy mornings.  I try to put in at least my own orders, but I can’t keep up and get my regular work done, too.

New busy work: a sheet of paper is now put up in each patient’s room that is supposed to be initialed and checked ever hour.  Even hours by nurses, odd hours by aides.  I suppose to prove to someone (patients? families? administration?) that the patient has been seen every hour.  (After 10p or so it drops to every 2 hours.)  A useless paper that proves nothing because anybody could fill in however many time slots at any given time.  It doesn’t go into the patient’s chart. (I don’t really know where it goes.  To the manager?)  And I know I didn’t get to it all tonight.  It’s a new change, and by the end of the shift I have everything but that stupid little paper on my mind.  I thought about it just before I clocked out, and I swiped my card anyway.  What the hell.   I was seeing some patients a lot more than once an hour.

Another new change thanks to a recent Walmart lawsuit: clocking out for lunches.  Before we simply had 30 minutes automatically docked for lunch each shift. Apparently if it isn’t done just right, we’ll get put on some list that gets sent to administration.  Cue the scary music.  Ooooohhh

All of this was enough, but today Maria (New Nurse) worked with me since her precepter was out sick.   My orientee Cindy was on her 2nd day officially on her own, and she had an overwhelming shift dealing with many, many new (to her) issues.  So, I was basically precepting two nurses and covering two groups.  My charge nurse was busy dealing with the clusterfuck of staffing issues all day long, rounding with all the docs, putting in orders, taking care of her patients,and at times covering for the other unit’s charge nurse.

And I was handed some packet (that I should have gotten months ago) to fill out and turn in at the end of the day.  A packet that had to detail the time Cindy spent with me, the patient diagnoses we covered, her progress and goals week-by-week, and a whole lot of other bullshit.  To be done and left in education’s box before I left.  So that Cindy could work her next shift.

Today sucked hairy monkey ass.

*That didn’t occur as a direct result of patients and/or family