Friday, June 13, 2008

The Natives are Restless Tonight

Well, it's 1:30 am at work, the air conditioning is off for 4 hours and we are out of fans. Patients are not happy. Maintenance is not happy. Nurses are not happy.

In addition, one of our nursing assistants was fired this week and is threatening employees, even calling some at home. One of the ICU nurses won't come in this weekend, because he has threatened her specifically. There is now a guard posted outside our unit, though what he will be able to do is beyond me, because they aren't allowed to carry weapons. Maybe harsh language will control the situation. Yep, that should do it.

If that wasn't enough, apparently one of our patients' husband is abusive and is threatening to come up here and shoot her. I heard her earlier on the phone, crying and telling him she will always love him, but she just can't take it anymore. Always love him? Are you kidding me?

I wish it were the dead of winter, since criminals don't like to come out in the cold. Usually.
I wish Hillary Clinton was here to see how I earn "too much money."
I wish everyone would go to sleep.
I wish I were (almost) anywhere but here.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Boy, sounds like a lot of nights I have, maybe not to that extreme, though. I was held at gunpoint at work in ICU about a year and a half ago. Crazed son of a pt who wasn't even in ICU anymore. You gotta wonder about people.

Lady Beekeeper said...

I guess I never really thought about what people in your field deal with - the patients would be difficult enough without the dysfunctional people that sometimes go along with it. Dealing with the public is always iffy. My sympathies. There are some homes I won't visit as a guardian ad litem but usually people are nice even if they are living on the edge or have anger problems. You guys never know who is coming through the door and they may be in the middle of a crisis. Scary stuff.

Libby said...

Oh gosh - is the moon full, too. Hope you made it through and the a/c came back on - every one settles just a little if the ambient temp is better *s*

MightyMom said...

the good news is that dawn always follows.

To Penny, the patients are easy, it's the families that give us hell, everytime!