- Joined
- May 22, 2002
- Messages
- 1,915
Hi Everyone,
Its been a very long time. I''ve had one hell of a 1.5 mhts. Let me summarize this for you:
- I was put on home isolation for taking care of a "possible SARS" patient on May 23rd which lasted till midnight of June 3rd.
- I was supposed to move on May 31st, but since I was on home isolation, couldnt. I couldnt see **anyone**. It was brutal. It sounds nice to be able to be home for 10 days to do nothing, untill you''re told you have to & have NO contact with the outside world.
- I had family drop off groceries at my door cause I couldnt even get anything delivered cause then I would have to interact with the delivery person.
- So, I''m set to move all my stuff on June 4th. Only, I get a call early that morning that my uncle (whom I''m very close to) had a major heart attack & died (at 6:30am). I''m a bit insane at this point. Moving that day was very hard.
- Another blow comes at about 2pm when my unit manager calls me & says that the hospital has reassigned me to the new SARS unit & I dont have a choice. If I want a job, I have to work there. Nice!! Thank you very F***ing much!! By this point I didnt give a rats ass what I said to her & believe me, I said a few things. Only thing, I knew she wasnt going to fire me for insubordination cause I''m a critical care nurse & we''re the ones they want. Besides, I understand there were quite a few resignations over this.
If you''re from Toronto, one of the nurses went very public with the media over how the hospital dealt with this & with us. They didnt do this as any goodness to the community or to the general public. The hospial administration grabbed this opportunity for some notoriety & fame.
- My unit gets shut down & revamped with negative pressure isolation rooms to the cost of about $1 Mill. Yes, you read that right. Only thing, we''ve been fighting for a state of the art CCU for yrs & no go. Then the old unit gets all this stuff? We''re still no closer to getting the new unit we need. What a bunch of BS & waste of funds!! So, my unit gets 10 new isolation rooms, the med-surg ICU has 5, the 14th floor has 7. Well, well, well....do you know that the CCU didnt get ONE SARS patiet!! Again, a total waste of $$$. My unit co-workers were shipped all over the hospital, working in units we didnt know anything about & for nothing.
You can tell I''m pissed. So far, we lost 5 full time nurses on my unit alone from all of this. There have been truckloads of nurses that have left or some that refuse to work overtime. I found out yesterday that if you know how to work in dialysis you''ll automatically get double time. This small unit was 5 nurses short today. On my unit, we''re short everyday about 1-2 nurses. Doesnt sound like much, but who will be there to watch the ventilators or balloon pumps (very advanced monitoring)?? The news media hasnt said jack about any of this. So, Leonid or Kirk or anyone from Toronto, DONT GET SICK! Or at least, stay out of St.M. hospital.
Oh forgot to mention, I did take care of actual SARS patients. I looked like a space creature with all the crap I had to wear. It was very hot & working conditions sucked. The double time I got paid, was not worth it. I didnt ask for it, & I didnt want to work there. There was maybe 10% volunteers & 90% forced staff.
Ok, my rant is over. Just wanted to let you know I was still alive but just too upset to talk to anyone or participate in any groups. I couldnt post a pic of what I looked like. I''m going to try. If I cant, I''ll see if I can get someone to post it for me.
Judy
Its been a very long time. I''ve had one hell of a 1.5 mhts. Let me summarize this for you:
- I was put on home isolation for taking care of a "possible SARS" patient on May 23rd which lasted till midnight of June 3rd.
- I was supposed to move on May 31st, but since I was on home isolation, couldnt. I couldnt see **anyone**. It was brutal. It sounds nice to be able to be home for 10 days to do nothing, untill you''re told you have to & have NO contact with the outside world.
- I had family drop off groceries at my door cause I couldnt even get anything delivered cause then I would have to interact with the delivery person.
- So, I''m set to move all my stuff on June 4th. Only, I get a call early that morning that my uncle (whom I''m very close to) had a major heart attack & died (at 6:30am). I''m a bit insane at this point. Moving that day was very hard.
- Another blow comes at about 2pm when my unit manager calls me & says that the hospital has reassigned me to the new SARS unit & I dont have a choice. If I want a job, I have to work there. Nice!! Thank you very F***ing much!! By this point I didnt give a rats ass what I said to her & believe me, I said a few things. Only thing, I knew she wasnt going to fire me for insubordination cause I''m a critical care nurse & we''re the ones they want. Besides, I understand there were quite a few resignations over this.
If you''re from Toronto, one of the nurses went very public with the media over how the hospital dealt with this & with us. They didnt do this as any goodness to the community or to the general public. The hospial administration grabbed this opportunity for some notoriety & fame.
- My unit gets shut down & revamped with negative pressure isolation rooms to the cost of about $1 Mill. Yes, you read that right. Only thing, we''ve been fighting for a state of the art CCU for yrs & no go. Then the old unit gets all this stuff? We''re still no closer to getting the new unit we need. What a bunch of BS & waste of funds!! So, my unit gets 10 new isolation rooms, the med-surg ICU has 5, the 14th floor has 7. Well, well, well....do you know that the CCU didnt get ONE SARS patiet!! Again, a total waste of $$$. My unit co-workers were shipped all over the hospital, working in units we didnt know anything about & for nothing.
You can tell I''m pissed. So far, we lost 5 full time nurses on my unit alone from all of this. There have been truckloads of nurses that have left or some that refuse to work overtime. I found out yesterday that if you know how to work in dialysis you''ll automatically get double time. This small unit was 5 nurses short today.
On my unit, we''re short everyday about 1-2 nurses. Doesnt sound like much, but who will be there to watch the ventilators or balloon pumps (very advanced monitoring)?? The news media hasnt said jack about any of this. So, Leonid or Kirk or anyone from Toronto, DONT GET SICK! Or at least, stay out of St.M. hospital.
Oh forgot to mention, I did take care of actual SARS patients. I looked like a space creature with all the crap I had to wear. It was very hot & working conditions sucked. The double time I got paid, was not worth it. I didnt ask for it, & I didnt want to work there. There was maybe 10% volunteers & 90% forced staff.
Ok, my rant is over. Just wanted to let you know I was still alive but just too upset to talk to anyone or participate in any groups. I couldnt post a pic of what I looked like. I''m going to try. If I cant, I''ll see if I can get someone to post it for me.
Judy
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