I work in health care, and I hate it. Now, don't get me wrong. I knew what I signed up for, and the long hours and patient requirements/dedication is everything I love. I am committed to my patients' health and wellness. However, I did not sign up to be treated like trash by my employeer.
To begin, I was forced to orient under someone that went out of their way to make my job harder. They refused to do any work, answer my questions, and opted to just play on their phone. They kept walking away from me while on task to go chat at the nurses' station. I got reprimanded by the head doctor on my floor because she reported I was “doing whatever I wanted” when she's the one that would tell me to do a task and leave. When I tried to defend myself, I was shut down. She also bad mouthed me in front of patients as we entered their room. (I am new to the hospital setting, and despite having my associates, I have minimal experience outside of a strict lab setting. I only ran tests and had practice on dummies.) This freaked some of the patients out and created a negative relationship and distrust in me. (It would literally be like me redressing a wound and her commenting aloud, in front of them, “do you even know what you're doing? Did they even show you anything useful? I can't believe you have NEVER done these things before.” Which, outside and in private, she could have asked me. It was unprofessional of her to make the statements in front of already nervous post-op patients who were itching to go home. (It's not just redressings either, she made several comments about me being a “young woman with no sense and needing my hand held” too, which was far from the truth. A nurse had offered to split the floor three ways with us for vitals, me taking one pod, her taking the other, and my orienter taking the third pod. My Orienter stomped her foot and told her no, because she needed to stay by myself.)
I posted in here before about her comments about phlebotomy, too. Her stressing out my patients by making comments about them being my first stick/my inexperience aloud IN FRONT of them.
None of these things would be a problem if asked or brought about with me in private/prior to entering the room. She also spent the entire time on the floor trashing me to the nurses. (She left early one night and one of the aides really told me “wow, you're not anything like [so-and-so] was telling us.” They were confused.)
I digress, my training has been awful. I went to the higher up (the doctor on my floor) and was dismissed and told to just wait out my orientation. (Also, we're not getting PPE in and no one is taking precautions on our floor anymore. We have severely sick patients with c-diff, covid, etc. we should really have something in place… which this is important to this tangent)
I thought from the twelves and being stressed, I was just tired. So, I came home from my last shift stressed. I just went to bed. I woke up struggling to breathe. I couldn't catch my breath or swallow. I went to the ER where I was diagnosed with acute bronchitis. (Literally, my one day off, I spent it getting a CAT scan). I had a really high fever and vitals overall. My d-dimer was high, which is signs of a potential blood clot. They kept me so we could run tests and make sure I was okay. So, I called out of work (WELL in advance, mind you), and I got the most hell for it.
Literally had the scheduler call me and say, “you're orienting! Can't you just leave and come in anyway?”
No… because not only am I physically sick and running a fever, I am also highly contagious right now and experiencing chest pains when I breathe. The doctor in the ER had wanted me out for several days to avoid spreading it and to also take the antibiotic they were prescribing me. So, I politely explained when I was being released back to work…. and today I get a call, “well, you NEED to be here for a class tomorrow.” I was just discharged from the hospital… I still have fevers, I am still on meds, and my note has me out for another couple of days/I have a follow up appointment with my doctor to make sure I am okay to go back. I explained again, “I am signed out until (x) and I just got home. I am happy to rework the schedule however need be. I am not returning until my doctor clears me back/until the return date on my paperwork. I am not comfortable putting my patients at risk.” BECAUSE we don't have proper PPE to see our sick patients and we don't have the proper PPE to protect ourselves. That's putting me, my coworkers, and my patients at risk.
THIS is exactly why I am seeking employment elsewhere. I am just… burnt out from this and then tired of hearing, “why are we understaffed? why is an entire floor in isolation? why are all of our staff sick?” Because you want to preach “call out of work if sick” but then don't really MEAN it.