A day of parts

So, Brick started today. Actually, Brick started in an enthusiastic and positive manner, which is good. I don’t know whether this is a resolution to the battery issue, but one can hope.

At any rate, I got to work, and promptly filled out an incident form. I hate doing incident forms, but lately they’ve been occupying more of my time. And I had one of those days, which while I feel quite positive about the day – and the stuff I did with the Student Nurse today, and despite struggling and the frustrations of an Agency member of staff who not only doesn’t pull her weight, but actively shirks work. Despite all that I think I’m lucky to have my job.

However, I am forced to wonder, were it not for my plans to depart this land and go to Canada taking my limited expertise with me, how long I’d carry on. I got home today and – because we were so short of time – I had to fill in a statement for another incident which happened a while back, which had a serious outcome for the individual involved. I’d say that we need more nurses, not less, on the ward. But hey.

And during my ‘break’ I did more paperwork – another incident form, this time for the thing that made me question how long I’d tolerate risking myself for such low pay. Today a sick patient coughed vomit into my eye. Because I was wearing my contacts, and because I didn’t take my spare glasses with me, I couldn’t irrigate my eye, I could only gently rinse it, hoping not to damage or wash out my contact lens. It’s odd though, because at the time I was too busy concentrating on him not choking to worry about myself. I stood there and suctioned and when he was safe I actioned the thought that had been in the back of my head (‘I really need to wash my eye’).
The risk of an infection is small, so long as he’s not got, say, Herpes simplex, or somesuch. But as experiences go it wasn’t much fun. And I shall worry, slightly, for a few days – until I get the results of the swab sent off.

As I defer my student loan for another month, and look at my struggle to meet outgoings with my income, I think to myself that this is not a great situation to be in. Not really. I need to be paid more, or have less stress.

Sadly, I love my job, and neither of those things is likely to occur, so I guess I’ll take my little old self somewhere else, where the money’s the same, but the cost of living is lower…

In other, but related, news – did anyone else know about this? I certainly didn’t, and feel for the EMTs. They’re great guys and this isn’t going to do anything for their morale.