Thunderstruck

To borrow a quote from Clark Griswold in Christmas Vacation "If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn't be more surprised than I am now."

Things seemed to be going pretty well. We found a new place that is nice and cheaper than the place we live in now. We were released, without penalty, from our current lease. We have jobs we like concurrently (a novelty) that come with the added bonus of good incomes. We are, in short, moving in a rather positive direction. Or were anyway.

Yesterday afternoon my supervisor, JT, came to speak to me. She was quite somber and the news was not good. I ran quickly through the preceding 2 weeks in my mind and could not alight upon any indiscretion that would warrant anything disciplinary, unless it was something I had simply neglected to do because of lack of training. Evidently, the news had nothing and everything to do with me, though none of it was within my control.

When I left the IV department, JT and I came to an agreement that I would be an on-call employee and stay active in the department. I was limited to 4 hours a week however, as anything additional would mean OT. So, I only managed to pick up a total of 4 hours on one occasion, though was offered other opportunities that did not work for one reason or another. We stayed in contact and, when the opportunity arose, I applied and was hired back full time just a month ago. It was fairly seamless and, in the interim, I had realized how little I enjoyed doing triage work.

The new job, while sometimes frustrating because of a lack of formalized training and my own desire to have a comprehensive understanding of my responsibilities, has been largely excellent. I really like doing clinic work. I like having autonomy. I like being able to get help when I need it and work alone if I don't. I like the hours and I like the patients. It is exactly the kind of job I imagined when I went through nursing school in the first place. And, it could theoretically evaporate now because of something ridiculously mundane.........paperwork.

Evidently JT communicated with HR when I left that I was to be on call. When I applied back for the position, it was only to be opened to people already within the department, which by virtue of being on-call I was. However, either JT didn't fill out some necessary piece of paperwork of HR did not file something correctly, because as of yesterday they determined that I was not 'within the department' and therefore ineligible for the job. What this means is now the job is to be re-opened in the department and offered back out. I would have no way to apply. If, after the requisite 5 days of posting, no one wants it, then it would open up to anyone, and I could then re-apply and would be given the job (per JT anyway).

However, if someone else wants the job, then I would have 3 options:
1. Go back to triage. They would be obligated to take me back because of the snafu. I could resume my full time gig. I would consider doing a day or 2 a week.........but will not go back full time. I hated how it made me feel at the end of every day and every week. Not worth it.
2. Work on-call in the IV dept. JT promised me pretty much full time hours. I would not have an benefits however and I would also not be working in the clinic much if at all. I would be back to pushing a cart around the hospital. I am not enamored of this idea either, but it is better than option 1.
3. Unemployment/potential litigation. Need to gather more info at this point, but these may be in play. Time will tell.

So, best case scenario right now is that no one, even people with no job currently, want the clinic position. Somehow I am not optimistic. Will be pursuing a meeting with HR next week for further explanation. As always, more to come.