General Hospital Was Never Like This

I think it's fairly common to dislike your customers when you work in a retail or service industry. People can be rude and disrespectful when they think they are 'above' a cashier, a waitress, salesclerk, etc.  What I never considered was how patients treated health care workers.

Some of you know that my oldest graduated from college 19 months ago with a BSN and got her RN license.  She immediately began working on a cardiac/critical care floor at a level one trauma hospital.  It was night shift, 7pm to 7 am, which is how most RN's start out.

To say that she hated her job would be an understatement.  She never got used to working nights and eventually gave up even trying to sleep during the days. She would go home, crash for a few hours, and attempt to resume a normal schedule till her next shift.  She lost 15 pounds because 12 hour shifts were really 13.5 hour shifts with no breaks.  She never felt well and the whole schedule messed with her system.  She is still suffering with some medical issues.

But that's not really what she disliked about the job.  The real problem was the patients.  When you think cardiac patients, do you think granny and gramps?  Well, no.  She would have been thrilled with that.  No, the majority of her patients were in their mid-30's to 50's and were people who had given up on life.  Sorry sorts who were dumped in the ER by relatives or significant others.  The morbidly obese and diabetics who hadn't checked their blood sugar in a year.  Drug seekers, hookers, sex offenders.  Prisoners chained to their beds with guards.  She saw it all and then some.  And let's not forget the shooting that happened on the floor above her, when everyone looked at each other in confusion, wondering what THAT code meant?

Stand-out moment:  When the patient in the bed next to her patient asked her to come over and look at his phone while her patient was in the bathroom (the same patient who kept asking her to come into the bathroom with him, even though she told him repeatedly he didn't need her help). The guy didn't like the way the bathroom guy was acting, so he looked him up online and found his photo and rap sheet in the county sex registry.  Thank you concerned patient for looking out for my daughter when her employer isn't! (Don't get me started on the useless union she had to pay dues to every paycheck).

The final straw was the 60 year old patient who kept attempting to convert her to Buddhism and inviting her to his "Wild and Wet Buddhist Party," while brushing against her chest every chance he got. Yes, because Buddhism is working out so well for you, Mr. Multiple Heroin Overdoser.  Or maybe it was the Burmese man who kept showing her his penis every time she walked into the room, pretending he didn't speak a word of English.  Either way, she was done.  It was difficult to watch my daughter, who had dreamed of a medical career since age 2, hate her job so much.

As soon as her year was up, she immediately began applying for other jobs.  She is now a very happy RN Case Manager for a major home health care agency.  Instead of "Give me my Percocet, Bitch!" it is now, "Honey, would you like to stay for lunch?" or "Sweetie, I have a really nice grandson that you should meet!"  She actually has patients aged 18 to 96, but the difference is that they all want to get better (or at least pretend to).  And the beauty of it is, if they don't do what she says, she has the power to dismiss them as clients.  How great is that?

Here's an early Christmas present she received last month from one of her patients:

Isn't this a HOOT?