Not enough nurses

It seems that the critical shortage of nurses extends to many areas. I was chatting online with my buddy working in the north and asking what his plans were for employment? He's working on a contract now and thinking of traveling to Cambodia possibly with a friend in the fall. He told me one of the 'older' nurses was asking him to "come down and work in Emerg" and I suggested that might not be so bad. He replied that if he'd been willing to leave the Legion on wing night last Wednesday they would have promised him the world as one of the RNs had worked a 17 hour shift because her replacement had called in drunk. I told him to "stop talking like that - you know that I dream of that".

On Monday night as I was just starting in to my days off the phone rang at 9 p.m. and it was a co-worker who pitifully said "I need help!" and I was thinking it was a consult for infection control (from my former life) but no she says "can you come work as a CCA (Continuing Care Assistant - or the entry level nursing assistant) tonight?" I chuckled into the phone and she said "don't laugh! I'm serious" So of course I agreed as RN pay and time and a half at that wasn't going to be a problem. "I can be there in 45 minutes" I said and made my preparations. The shore captain didn't have a problem when I said "do you mind if I go to work tonight?" because he said I had kicked and and jumped all night the night before. He was right - I had been having a horrible nightmare about working in a sauerkraut factory and I HATE sauerkraut so I was really suffering. The laugh was on me though as the RN on shift was ill almost as soon as I arrived and we ended up putting her to bed with a shot of gravol, threatening her with IV fluids and she ended up having bloodwork done before the physician on call would allow her to leave in the a.m. So I got to be the RN and CCA while working short - you'd think I'd learn not to gloat. I felt so sorry for the fallen comrade as I had been struck with the same bug and been cared for by a co-worker myself on the Friday of my night shifts.

I had been dreaming of a winter vacation and especially so this year to celebrate the surviving of my Emergency Nursing Course and checking out some cruises but....the cheapest I could find was about $1000 each. I had been asking some of the girls at work in case they should be interested to make it a 'girls getaway' and one of them said "can't I have to pay for my divorce" and when I expressed my sympathy she said "oh no, don't worry we get along much better now that we're not married". So without any takers in the female department I made myself have a look at the cruise speaker situation again so the life partner and I could swing it. And long story short I negotiated a gig doing creative writing, blogging and other such fun stuff on the Emerald Princess as below - my apologies for the misalignment it is 5 a.m.

Emerald Princess us and 3000+ passengers

10 days Southern Caribbean Medley Roundtrip from Ft. Lauderdale





Port                                                     Arrival                       Departure
               
                                                            
1 Ft. Lauderdale, Florida                                                     4:00 PM

2 Princess Cays, Bahamas                  9:00 AM                   4:00 PM

3 At Sea

4 St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands  8:00 AM                   5:00 PM

5 Dominica                                           9:00 AM                   6:00 PM

6 Grenada                                            7:00 AM                  2:00 PM

7 Bonaire                                            12:00 PM                  7:00 PM

8 Aruba                                               7:00 AM                   5:00 PM

9 At Sea

10 At Sea

11 Ft. Lauderdale, Florida               7:00 AM

Not a bad itinerary if I do say so myself - snorkeling, sun, ah

So now I'm looking forward to the vacation and the topic. I spent yesterday morning going through some of my materials, had the shore captain fax the agreement and release form and so am really anticipating this kind of 'teaching'. I must polish up this blog if I'm to use it for an example.
 
And as for why I'm typing this at 5 a.m. well the short answer is that I answered my phone at suppertime and was offered the chance of doing 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. this morning instead of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. today and for the same pay as the time and a half makes it equal. What is not to like? The only wrinkle is that the cleaning lady will be attempting to put the house in order when I get home - not that I mind or will hear her but I may get under her feet and distract her and that should NOT be happening.