I got a letter on Monday that I was nominated by a committee for an “excellence in Nursing Award” this year. I find out on Thursday if I win the award, or just the nomination. either way, I was REALLY surprised, and pleased that I was recognized. I’m not really having n easy time at the job, so the recognition that some people think I am doing a good job, really does please me. Though deep down some part of me feels that “I don’t need awards” the other part of me is genuinely happy that I was nominated. It is very validating. 2 weeks ago

I finally finished my MRSA project that was plaguing me. I am pretty pleased with it.

Now, Slides, data uploads, flu crud, hand hygiene data presentation, get glogerm ready for weekend. type up EOC reports Monitor red box project some more and leave early because I had a late meeting today. YIKES! 1 month ago

FInally took some time to get started on the one project I am scared of. I was feeling pretty good about it, but then bammo I had to show it to the ID doctor who immediately made some changes so it is back to the drawing board for me.

I do not have the time!

My Boss, who drives me nuts did step in when I was given a request from Surgery to Look up information for them, and said…NO you will not do it. It’s stuff they need to do.

Arrrugh. We shall see if I get it done tomorrow. At LEAST 2 of my scary infections turned out to be accidental firings from the lab. WHEW. 1 month ago

Not too much got done yesterday.

I did learn one thing which didn’t get celebrated but should be.

This is the first year that hospitals will be penalized financially for not reporting certain infections to the CDC.

It is a huge penalization. about 2% of Medicare funds.

My hospital was not on that list because I submitted everything required ON time.

Now…of course that’s my job…But apparently a great deal of other places did not do this correctly.

I do wish I’d get a little credit for that. 1 month ago

April Fools Day.

Going to try to do all this and more..

Start rolling out the Safe zone project (pray that the tape is present and accounted for.)

read more and digest reports, and start to produce an aggregate report.
This involves collaboration with the lab and pharmacy. Boo- I like working with folks, but no one ever seems to be on my schedule, nor does the information I need to know ever seem to be at their fingertips. I mean, you would think the lab would know how many flu tests they did? Oh no, they don’t seem to keep track of that.

Start making slides for the Critical Care Committee
Start on the slides for Infection Prevention Committee
Dig out Basinless bath info and get it readied
EOC walks
Regular Monday report for Senior Leadership

Whew. 1 month ago

today turned into a big frustration. We had a few surgical site infections. Due to the wierd Government regulations…they don’t actually qualify. it makes some sense, because some of the not so infected things sometimes get dinged.

My Boss went ballistic, she kept arguing with me. She has not read the new regulations and such, and then it kind of went on and on and on…
I finally had to ask her to read the regs- which will take forever for her. Not a happy day. 2 months ago

to start educating about the project. So I will be at work at 6:30 am, which is actually kind of nice because…I can leave work early. I never get to do this.

On top of that, I need to hone 2 proposals for a meeting in the second week of April.

Create a report for the 9th of April.

Investigate about 11 potential infections, and do some regularly scheduled stuff.

I need 2 of me.

And I need to report some sort of Flu summary. and email the NHSN about the patient flu summary which I don’t care to report, but they seem to think I want to…not required. I hope I get through this week. 2 months ago

I am rolling out, with the CNO’s blessing a project called “The Safe Zone” It’s going to hopefully reduce the burden of contact isolation on patients and staff, reduce falls, and save the hospital some cash.

It’s the first time I’ve Rolled out a project. Wow what details are involved. It does not help that the unit manager from the unit the CNO chose, is really overwhelmed and can’t help.

I think it will be a success, but each day I realize there is another group of folks to talk to..so many departments are involved. I don’t want it to roll out without everyone getting informed and up to speed.
I feel good about it though, because I am finally able to implement something that has worked in other places, that will hopefully create positive results for both the nurses and the patients… 2 months ago

I have bunches of meetings. And then I have a meeting with my Boss about “priority setting” That is what she calls it, but really it is because I forgot to do a few things for HER. I admit, I forgto them, but it wasn’t that my priorities are off, I just don’t think those projects are very important.

Anyway. Like I said that meeting will SUCK. Other than that, got great kudos again from the New Chief Nursing Officer. And then learned my Boss dislikes her, probably because she hasn’t acted at all interested in what my boss has to say, but the CNO calls me weekly for an opinion on something….Hmmmm. Hopefully I can take an appropriately “humble” attitude towards the boss and everyone will come out happy. I may come out irritated but I just wanna get through it. In the future, I will be more cognizant of her stupid projects. 2 months ago

So for a few weeks now I knew I had a Joint Commission project to do. My Boss wouldn’t let me look at it. She said “we’ll do it together” In fact, on Friday when I asked if I could get started on it, she said NO.
I asked about it on MOnday. Today she said she would do it at 2:30. SHe was late. at 2:30 she came by my desk, put some papers on the deak and left. Thats Doing it together?
Well DAMN. If she had let me have the papers 2 weeks ago, this project would be done. I HATE working this way. 2 months ago

I totally screwed everything up for a meeting. You name it. Some people did not attend who may have needed a reminder, I didnt give them a reminder, I forgot the meeting was on Wednesday until tuesday at 4 so slides and crud were not really ready. Had to get to work at 6 this morning to attempt to prepare slides. Once slides were readied, I had forgotten an entire unit. I forgot to invite an important person to the GD meeting….shall I go on?

Right before the meeting, the Chief Nursing Officer (Senior Leadership) came in to attend and told me in front of my boss that she was Extremely pleased with the report I had provided her on MRSA. She really gave me lavish praise, and told me I was really cut out for the job etc.

SO. Kind of a tough day with a silver lining. I really like the new CNO, she is the best. 3 months ago

I admit I am getting super annoyed with people breaking the barrier precautions. SO I’ve been merrily reporting people to their managers all week. This includes Surgeons, one of whom is a particularly distasteful person. Oddly I actually feel much better having done this, because I know that it is protecting the patients better, even if people cringe when they see me coming.

Wear your Damn PPE people. 3 months ago

It is a pretty complex thing, involving both nursing, microbiology, behavioral modification (for the staff, not me.), construction regulations, and basic regulations of what can go where etc. Of and the reporting requirements for the CDC, and also the state, and…

I’m resolved to the fact that I will not change jobs, until I am asked to…(:D) in the next 16 weeks, as I am in training for an important marathon.

So, each day I am scheduled to work, I need to give 8 hours of intense thought and Productivity on this situation.

ANd frankly…A taser for those non hand washer would be nice, though it would be defunct after about 10 minutes. 3 months ago

in and of it self is just kind of a difficult job right now. People finally CARE about preventing infection because after all, it is finally affecting the bottom line. THis is GREAT, but…like anything else, when you ignore something for decades, it tends to be shocking when you finally look at it.

Had a short chat with a former colleague who has moved on. I felt fairly reassured that some of the problems I am experiencing are not me, but the culture of the place I am at. Arrrugh.

Also came up with a FIRST, an intervention to help with Isolation compliance that the staff like. It is pretty staff driven, and is going to be loads of fun- IF it works. If it fails, well…then here we go again. 4 months ago

So I had a better day on Monday. Surgery person met with me to try to get me to “remove infections” And I got the experience of explaining one by one why each one met. It took a long time, and I could tell she was disappointed as she could not get any of them “taken back”. The nice part was that the Physician who came along asked very pertinent questions and grasped the situation well. I felt better about this, and like the Infection Prevention program may get better support moving forward.
I have a New meeting today with a very important person from Administration. I have high hopes that this will also go well. I’m still toying with the old 3 day a week schedule. But I feel like if I can get solid support and INTEREST within the organization…I might could make a go at this.

I should note, we have a Very Low infection rate as it is, so sometimes it gets a little nitpick-y. But a low rate means nothing to the one person who suffered through long term antibiotic treatments, or repeat procedures. 4 months ago

I HATE THIS JOB!

It is a completely thankless experience. I’m in between administration and the Nurses. The Nurses, are sort of oblivious of the stuff they do that puts patients at risk…(How hard is it to wash hands?). Admin does not want to do certain things that would help. No one wants to accept they have some infections going on, and they all want me to fix all the problems of their area…

I’ve been trying to figure out a good good way to somehow go back to my old job.

THing is I’m not feeling really well right now and I know that it’s never good to make a major decision when feeling lousy…. 4 months ago

I have got to find some ways to decrease the stress of this position. I sometimes stick my neck out when I see things that are unusual. It creates a ton of work for me, and tend to make other people angry. Thing is I am paid to look for odd trends and to work with public health and such to determine if these odd trends are a threat to Public Health…So I guess making people angry is part of the job. Well at least the weird stuff occurs frequently, but usually in different departments…. But man I am exhausted. 9 months ago

I spent some time with Dr. Intensivist today…the one who was particularly difficult to work with when I first started. He definitely brought me very close to tears, if not actual ones.

He told me that he felt I was doing a good job today, and then repeated it to my boss, twice. This is a good place to be.

I feel much better about working with him, but of course there are still infections to conquer… WASH those hands people. 9 months ago

moving along pretty well. one of the problem people has resigned! whoo hoo.

THe mean doctor has not been so mean lately.

my boss was off all week and that was relaxing.

The crises…well…were handled easily. 9 months ago

I am getting ready for the next quarterly meeting and finding some problems with things. We are seeing a rise in some types of infections, and then a fall in others. The rises make me terribly nervous. I don’t create the infections, I just find them. BUT..people do usually want to understand why the increase.

My evaluating colleague is coming on Monday and I can not wait. I think he will really shed some good light on things. 10 months ago

in hospitals is a pain in the neck. That is all I wish to say on the subject. And please if the ICRA paper says wear booties…it does mean you have to wear them…like, you know, on your shoes. 10 months ago

All of the difficulties of last week are essentially behind me now. My manager is still an unusual person. one thing to my advantage now is that through the proposal and my other job duties, I have had a great deal of exposure to “Administration” I presented to the CFO and COO the other day and then spent about an hour in a meeting with the COO- who said, “I didnt know you inspected all these projects daily” So, they are starting to see some of the different parts of my job. It can be very difficult for people to understand what all I do so I am always very pleased for that opportunity. All of these Admin people are also rather normal. Hmmm… 10 months ago

Well. As far as I know, I am still in “trouble” for the 2 things done. Nothing to change those mistakes. BUT…let me indulge in telling a story.

The first week I was hired, the Intensivist (who dislikes me) told me, “We need a new brand of Ventilator things” The new kind works to prevent certain infections. It is also 10-12 times more expensive than the old brand. I went to town. Did a ton of research, and it appears that the new brand really does something different and BETTER than the old brand.
Sooo, I worked on a few proposals, talked with Respiratory Therapy and the manager of the ICU. After a few False Starts- we finally figured out where to send the proposal (so many committees, so little power.) I actually became so frustrated at trying to push it through, that I gave the entire proposal to THe manager saying, :I dont know where to send this anymore”. I then chalked all that work up to gaining experience and forgot about it. Yesterday on my chair when I came back from lunch was a pile of “product eval” papers for me to sign. The Chief Financial Officer had signed them. He came by later, and I asked, “So you approved these?” He said, yes, bt it was very painful…He tried to impress upon me how much expense was involved…and I explained how much expense was involved with the infections. (We are not paid by insurance for these infections.) I then was so excited I asked him if I could go tell the Intensivist. The Intensivist, who really does dislike me just about fell out of his chair. He high fived me and kept saying “This is big, do you know how big this is?” The CFO then came by the ICU, and the intensivist smiled at him and pointed at me and said, “You know this woman just saved you a TON of money” The CFO said, no, she just cost me a ton… I emailed the Manager who was on Vacation and also got a super nice “Thanks for putting all that work into this”
Sooo…It was a wonderful moment, to first see the product that we do need be approved in part due to work I had done. Secondly to get the Intensivist to get on board with me, instead of making snarly comments or trying to embarrass me (his usual M.O.) and thirdly to have it acknowledged by the ICU manager that I had done a lot of work.
So wahoo. I cost the hospital 30K in new equipment. Hopefully…it will save the Hospital over 80K in infection treatment (ie not having to treat it.)

So yes, I am still dreading BIG TIME going to work on Monday and facing my Boss- AKA Delores Umbridge (Happy Potter fans know who that is, and luckily my Boss is only a little umbridgy.)But I feel like my existence had finally been validated for both the ICU Mgr and also the Intensivist. Hooray.It is nice to feel appreciation…but I still have to face the mean boss…who really is not mean at all. 10 months ago

It seems I did something very incorrectly while covering for the Employee Health RN back in June.

I did not mean to, but I actually did not know any better. I should clarify that No one was harmed in any way shape or form.

I’m very annoyed because the EH nurse did not really go over how to handle the situation, she just kind of dumped a packet on my desk and then went on vacation. So….I tried.

What I find unusual about the situation is that at least 2 managers within the hospital were unaware of the correct policy, and they have been through this before.

But there is no point in pointing fingers, though I have to admit, thats what I want to do. My Manager was very nice about it, and said, when we all get back next week, we can go over it so that when you are in that situation again, this won’t happen. But, what a pain in the neck it has been for her I can tell.

Not losing my job over this, but Gosh, I just feel miserable that I did that incorrectly…and it would now seem to be causing issue for my manager. Phooey. 10 months ago

My first committee meeting. The Director and the physician who have not had much exposure to me both said at the end that they thought I did a good job.

The only moment that was awkward was indeed making a motion and asking for a second.

I had a HUGE win in getting the EIA test deleted from the hospital order set. BAM. So pleased.

Only sad thing, apparently now my new job, makes me ineligible for the Clinical Ladder, so I had to surrender 1.00 an hour of pay. I had gotten about a 1.50 raise, so I guess it is not a big deal…but it was irritating. (ie could they have not figure that out several weeks ago when they hired me?)

Now I just have to get some people to be a little more enthusiastic about the flu vaccine and hand washing.

And yes, I angered the employee health nurse…mostly because I did not do her own research for her. She surprises me constantly with what she does or does not do….

Ahhhh now if I could get rid of my Micromanaging boss, I think I could do better! 11 months ago

How I am doing.

Our Intensivist continues to be a bit of a Jerk. I have decided that I really don’t care. He does not have any power to hire or fire me, and his being a jerk has been noted by a large variety of people.

BUT
My current manager is kind of driving me nuts. She is not well versed in IP and so it becomes difficult to discuss things with her. Some days she is very helpful. Others I am confused about what she wants.

I feel comfortable in doing what I am doing daily, and now that I’ve had an immense amount of assistance from my manager with the Quarterly report, I feel pretty good about it too….

I have a feeling the Quarterly Report may make or break me…We’ll see how things go. I can always go back to the Emergency Department, but I’m not so sure I want to at this point… 11 months ago

This week, I have created a few little messes, plus trying to deal with micro manager manager and the plan for FY 2012, which is already Done the third quarter, so why rewrite it? is making me feel a little bit deflated. My Micromanager manager was great though in helping me adjust my graphs and make the stuff for the meeting look much better (She does have like 25 years of meeting making experience!)

Getting more support as I move on with the people I work with… THis is a good thing. now…If I can make it through today and tomorrow. 11 months ago

Today I learned something about the higher ups of the world. You know those messages… “An important message from your CEO”? Well, I guess I was a little naive. Yes, those messages are not really from your CEO. I spent about 3 hours today writing, “An important message from your CEO regarding Influenza Vaccination” Lucky for me, My Manager liked it very much.

SO next time you see an important message, consider who is really behind it! 11 months ago

I Have SO MUCH Data. Trying to prepare a quarterly report. And Iam really unsure of what to do exactly. But its miserable. Lots and lots of graphs, I love them but I am not so sure anyone wants to know what they are… 11 months ago

I may be settling in a bit.

Went to the orientation meeting today where we discuss new employee orientation. I was a wee bit nervous, as there was my BIG boss there as well as some very senior people.

The head of the mtg had sat in on my section of new emp. orientation. She told everyone, “I sat in and saw what TJ did and it was very nice” It felt good to have that compliment. The old one was AWFUL, but my new one had the video embedded and such.

My little boss told me this week I seem more confident. I do feel that way.

and I used my job title to finally get the stained changing room curtains at the gym (part of our hospital). They had been stained for at least 6 months. they were stained with unknown substances and rather gross.

in 2 weeks, I have to present some data to the surgeons, it is not the most welcome data and I am afraid. 11 months ago