June 20

Hey guys!

Remember that time that I was fed up with the unsafe staffing levels, unhappy with my job, and just generally over the whole thing? Well...I quit my job about a month ago and decided to take a month or two off without stressing over it.

My last 6 days of work were hands down among the worst - in a department that should have 12 nurses overnight, we often had just 7-8. Staff is 6:1 with extremely sick patients on an every night basis. Most nights I had to take hall patients in addition to being charge and having the whole department under my care. Ambulances lined up for hours because there were no beds. Trauma patients and CPRs and other critical patients had subpar care because staffing was low. If we're a busy department with appropriate staffing levels doing this, that's one thing - but when the main area for ambulances only has 1 or 2 nurses...that's a problem.

I had gotten to the point where my manager felt that me speaking up over shitty conditions was toxic to the department and not in line with management. No shit, sherlock. I've never been one to fall in line and be a yes man to the higher ups, but this was exceptionally painful since my hospital used to be a fantastic one. I found a bunch of daily staffing grids from pre-COVID showing our 12-13 nurse par level, and brought them in to emphasize the staffing issues we currently have. I was told that financial analysis of the patient load in the department did not support those numbers any more, and that 10 nurses is in fact overstaffed. Well, fuck me I guess because between management and I, only one of us is actually working those overnights and seeing firsthand how bad it is. My nurses were in tears on a regular basis with how overworked and stretched thin they were. 

So, yeah. I had long conversations with people about how unhappy I was, and finally my husband was like well, why don't you quit? I agonized back and forth about it and finally realized that he was right. So, I quit!

I then immediately took a two week long solo road trip from Texas to Wyoming for a half marathon, and spent those two weeks not even worried about work. I have worked in the ER for 15 years and other than a few weeks between travel contracts I have never really taken any time off. My husband pointed out that people change jobs all the time and that is is okay for me to do it too. So here I am, between jobs and searching for one that will make me happy and also pay the bills.

It's a nice change, truly.

Next post up: trip pictures!