The thing I hate MOST about Autumn's having a trach is having to deal with nurses. Oh, how I miss my Midland nurses. We have 2 nurses. If one calls in then there are no back-ups. I know this is my fault but I don't like training new nurses and I want Autumn to have consistency in her nurses and not having a "stranger" come in every one in awhile. We could use 120 of nursing each week but since we do not want nurses raising our daughter for us...we use the minimum amount possible to keep me sane. ;) So, we use 56 hours a week. These 56 hours are crucial times for us. We use 4 nights shifts each week and one day shift a week. My SIL covers the rest of the time because we love having a family member to be the one filling in and nurturing Autumn when I have things to get done. Anyways, my main night nurse is WONDERFUL!!! She works 3 nights a week and always on time, doesn't do the annoying things I can not stand (like putting meds in lids and then putting it back on the bottles so medicine drips down the bottle), she's a strong-christain woman from Africa and loves to read bible stories to Autumn and teaches me about how spoiled Americans are and how unhealthy we eat. ;) She's really is so sweet though.
Well, then we have our other nurse. She's great with Autumn and really is good at her job. She's very precise though with things that don't matter much and that annoys me but I try to overlook all my OCD issues to handle the ways she does things. The bad part is that she's always late, calls in a lot, and asks to take off early all the time. For example, the last 5 Sunday nights...she's called in sick 3 times, 1 time took another case and worked a day shift so could not work her night shift for us (nursing agencies fault as well), and worked 1 shift. Another example, out of 14 shifts she's been late to 9 shifts...when I say late....I mean 15-45 mins late. She always blames it on traffic but why not leave earlier if you KNOW there is ALWAYS traffic. I'm so fed up with her. We lost our saturday night nursing so this past Saturday Autumn let me sleep for about 4 hours and then the nurse called in Sunday. I would so fire her BUT that means training and trusting a new nurse. She's also my day nurse so she's my ONE chance each week to get out with my SIL and do shopping, have lunch, or do home projects without ANY kids whatsoever! It usually takes me about 2 months to really trust a nurse enough to leave them all alone with Autumn. I'm not ready to give up my one outing each week...I know Autumn is in good hands when I am gone but her not being realiable has me so fed up. Plus if you fire one nurse....you never know what nurse you will get next. They could be great or they could be even worse than the one you just fired. It's the most frustrating part for me to deal with. I KNOW I need the help and can not get rid of nursing but it's such an extra stress on me to deal with this nurse. I think we are going to have her let go of her Sunday night shift and let her keep her Tuesday day shift for now and see about getting a new nurse who can do Saturday and Sunday nights. I think she just does not like working night shifts so she always calls in. Please pray our next nurse will be great and that the current nurse will get better about being more dependable for us. ;)
1 comment:
As I nurse myself, I hate when I hear about nurses who are wrapped up in themselves that they can't give quality care to the families they are supposed to be caring for. (You are included in that).
Sounds like you have a plan, to hopefully find someone to work with you while keeping your times covered - maybe for the next couple weeks use up more of the time you are allowed to train a new nurse? Maybe the nurse you really like can recommend someone?
You are completely right to want things that are important to you. Trust your gut and take care of yourself too!
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