As I sat in the home health agency office yesterday afternoon, finishing up an audit, I was listening to what was happening around me. Disengaging, if you will. It was quite a revelation, to me.
Our rep was there, from the wound vac company. We have a new nurse and he was learning the idiosyncrasies of the wound vac. Since they were sitting at the desk right next to me, I got to be part of the repartee, too. It was fun.
My own chore was repetitious: gathering information from our computer program to use in reporting any trends in rehospitalization of our patients. Our goal is to keep our patients out of the hospital. Even though I was looking for facts, I had plenty of time to listen to what was going on around me.
A nurse sitting near me was on the phone. Call after call, making things happen. She spoke to her patient's wife, to the hospice liaison nurse, to the patient's physician, and then to the director of a step down unit. Life is not going well for the patient, and our nurse was intervening to assist with important decisions. Difficult decisions.
As she worked on this, her cell phone rang: her teenage son had issues he wanted to discuss with her, right then and there. Typical of a teenager, what he was concerned about was far more important than anything his mother might be doing at work.
Another nurse, another phone call. The afternoon was rife with patients who had needs and nurses who were trying to get orders to address those needs. Some successfully, some not. It's like that: some physicians will work with us to help their patients, others can't be bothered to speak to a home health nurse.
What could we possibly be doing that's so important? An ICU nurse? Well, that's a different story. That's Life and Death. But then, as I was listening yesterday, so is what we do more frequently than I care to think.
I was very tired; yesterday was my Friday. It was a long week, as I was Lead Nurse for four of the five days I worked. It wasn't that bad, really. I have spent most of my career making difficult decisions, and taking the flak for them. Sometimes, I think I have seen it all and done it all. I haven't, of course, but it feels like it.
As the afternoon drew to a close, I cleared off my desk and put things away. I left my laptop at work: it has to be communicated at least every 14 days and I will be gone longer than that. How cool is that? I smiled to myself as I thought about where I am going, and what I am going to see, in the next two-plus weeks.
I remembered that I had a therapy session at four and I hurried to get out the door. “Goodbye, have fun! Keep us posted on Facebook!” from my co-workers and boss, and I was out the door. They are a good group of people, hardworking, kind and caring. They are good at what they do and they will do fine while I am gone.....
It's all in a day's work.
I've not been on my blog for nearly a year. Oh my! And that being said, I haven't been following up on other's blogs--till now. ;)
ReplyDeleteI hope you have a fun trip filled with fun and rest! :)