Make her take you to dinner first.;)

There is no joy greater than outliving your opponents, whether literally or metaphorically. Congratulations!!

In the grand scheme of things, my performance on the awful, horrible really bad night was rated "pretty good." I got a good one month eval from boss-dude, too.

And some additional chaos management tips.

I just woke up from having worked an unexpected double last night. By "unexpected," I mean that the night shift person called off an hour before her shift. I had just gotten into that mode of "all right, only an hour to go and I'm home in bed!"

Not quite.

There were still a bunch of patients in the lobby waiting for beds at 2300, and hyperguy and I were getting things under control and then ... another patient walks in. Not a walk in, this guy was expected, but he should have been to us LONG before he arrived. Technically, he showed up after his bed was released, but thank FSM, we hadn't put anybody else in it.

So, I had a whole admission to do on top of the "leftovers," which included several discussions with insurance companies. Hyperguy stayed for a little bit, until around 0130 or 0200 or so, I don't really remember anymore.

The one thing that was kind of crucial to my getting out of there before 0700 when the next person would be in was ... being able to forward the phones to another department. Sounds simple, right? I even had some instructions. They were for an older phone, and so were nigh useless.

Hyperguy was so hyper he couldn't remember how to do it.

The nurse manager who sits in the office down the hall didn't know either.

The unit the calls forward to didn't even know that calls forwarded to them.

When I finally finished the last insurance call, I tried every single darn button on the phone.

And found it.

I tested it by calling the main number and the unit that didn't know it answered the phones answered the phone.

Awesome.

I got home around 0600. I think I may have had five hours of sleep.

You're doing a great job.

Yup.

Sometimes things are out of control.
Learning when they are SNAFU is the trick. Because then you don't worry about not coping. You relax and deal with what you can.

Of course I say this is an LSA, not in your job :)
But who's to say you could deal with 31 5-7 year olds?














Who am I kidding?
You could walk through my job asleep.
You'd captivate them all by stripping down and reassembling you weapon.

Sundae, just curious, are you left in charge of the class for long periods? And if you are for any length of time, what first aid certification/training do you have and did the school pay for it?

Sundae, I could NOT manage a room full of ruly 5-7 year olds, much less unruly ones. Give me a room full of nuts or junkies, and I'm in my element.

Most of what I do, even here, is really just a matter of rising above the chaos and not trying to force order onto it, but rather finding it's rhythm and flowing with it without getting caught up in it.

Kind of like swimming out of an undertow, but with people. ;)

Last night I sent an email to IT about a fairly minor issue I've been having. I figured they'd look into it and get back to me ... it's the one that the help desk said they couldn't help me with before. There are workarounds (like walking to the actual fax machine down the hall from my office), but I'd rather be able to fax stuff from my computer. Helps me be lazier.

Darndest thing happened. After 2300 hrs. I was packing up to leave, had cleared out of my desk, and ... phone rings. Nightlady says, "It's for you."

Me? I didn't call anyone.

It was IT. They saw the helpdesk request and were responding to it, to ask some more questions beyond what I'd already included in my email. They are actually going to work on it.

This is so weird to me. My last IT guy was a legacy (his dad had been medical director) with a degree in journalism who didn't own a home computer. What IT guy doesn't own a home computer? That's like a plumber who doesn't own a toilet!

wow. you have IT on duty around the clock? wow. I guess it's a big operation and that working computers are "mission critical".

Typically IT is only available at night when something that actually prevents you from doing your job, like logging in to the medical records charting system. "Little" issues, like I thought mine was (there are physical fax machines available in the department, the only thing it's doing is making me walk down a hallway). That's why I emailed the helpdesk rather than calling the IT emergency line. I'm not having an emergency, I'm having an inconvenience.

Your ability to distinguish the two, nay, your very recognition that there exists the possibility of a difference between the two, is greatly appreciated by all of us IT drones.

The IT lady remembered me from orientation, when I confessed to knowing computer stuff.

Preach it, brother!

"I used to work with computers and play with people. Now I do the opposite."