Does it count if I wrote it in April?

Well, this is my last week in the clinic.  Last Friday was really bittersweet as all three of my afternoon patients were visibly upset that I am moving back to the floor.  Two of the three also clearly weren’t fond of the less gentle method of IV placement that my replacement uses.  However, she finds the numbing agent to make the process less effective and, given the option of using it and potentially having to re-stick, most would prefer going without.  However, I don’t find it has any impact on most people’s veins…at least those that are healthy enough to come into the outpatient clinics.  That said, I think my (temporary) replacement will do very well.  She is very intelligent, has years of experience, and has the same jovial personality that I do.  She may not engage with the patients in the same manner that I do (part of it is my belief that the experience should be made more personal and personable and part of it, as my wife and her eardrums would attest, is my inability to shut up), but I have no doubts she will provide safe and effective care (at least until she goes on maternity leave in the summer). 

As far as who will be the one to take over the clinic ‘permanently’, there are still some questions.  Though, it appears, they will be opting to put a former employee in the position over the person that they had spoken of previously from out of state.  This is fine in some regards as I do not doubt the skill and ability the former employee brings to bear and she will be thoroughly familiar with the system and the clinic.  On the other side, she is not a very committed person…kind of a nursing vagabond really.  How long she will choose to tolerate the generally languid pacing and lack of internal support for the clinic will be interesting to see.  I have not been part of the process though, so I am unsure of what (or when) someone new will walk through the door.  All I know is that, come Friday, I will be little more than an occasional fill in.  Honestly, the whole thing bums me out. 

But, as there is no plan for the clinic going forward my choices were limited.  I could have ridden it out to its termination point of course, but that would have left me with precious few options when (and if) it occurred.  With one option still being closing the clinic, I could have found myself working on call at best.  Considering my utter lack of success in procuring a position outside of the department (a fact that still mystifies me as I have been a well-reviewed employee of the company for 5 years now), my confidence in moving to anything other than overnight butt-wiping shifts was low.  My other options would have put me on evenings, which would have put undue stress on Tia (M-F from 4p-1230a?  3 or 4 days a week from 5p-230a??) or me  (Pediatrics?).  So, in the game of work blackjack, I stayed on 17.  My hope at this point is that, down the line, a clinic gig will open up at the Creek.  Until then………well, the floor it is. 

Speaking of the floor, I am excited to have coworkers again.  Though, I must say, I would dearly like them to be more consistent in their attendance and perhaps fuller in their rolls of on-call employees.  How they ALWAYS manage to be understaffed by at least one if not 2 employees is beyond my understanding considering the abundance of unemployed RNs in the area and the higher pay and better benefits that working in a hospital affords.  But, it seems we have rarely been in any other position and this is truly the eye of the storm.  When there is a sick call at a peripheral site, they pull from here.  When there is a sick call here, they pull from the thin rolls of our on-calls (we had two reliable and hard working on-calls RNs, but both had to retire to start claiming their pensions or risk losing money by working, though both expressed the desire to continue doing so).  Sigh.  I just have to remember that some days will be tough and some days will be easy and in all cases to try to stay within myself and just do my job and not worry about how many rounds or starts are ahead of me as I can only control what I do.  I am sure it will be easier said than done. 

In Quinn’s latest Quinnism, we were at the grocery checking out and the clerk said hello to Quinn, who looked at her and said “I don’t want to talk right now.”  Quinn also got have a full on sugar Sunday when he had a belated Easter at grandma and gramps with his cousin that involved candy (of course) sweet rolls, and juice.  Then, following a nap, got to go to a birthday party for a neighbor’s kid and had cake and played in the bounce house (and took a whack at a piñata).  All in all, a pretty good day to be a toddler.