I Keep Getting Hit in the Head

"Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith."  -- Steve Jobs, Apple Computer

One of the best things about moving out here to AZ was that David and I have finally gotten to work together again.  Some people may not understand that, but we really love working together and we really work well together.  Well the phone call I got today may change all that.

I got a call about 5:00pm today telling me my shift was canceled, as I suspected it would be because I was the "extra" person.  But the other little tidbit was a huge surprise.  My agency informed me that the hospital I've been working at said I needed to rearrange my schedule because David & I would no longer be allowed to work together.  Whoa!  What the hell just happened?  They knew nothing and suggested I call the hospital, which I promptly did.  The girl in staffing said she didn't know what happened just that she was told to relay that message and that I should call the Nurse Director who was in the ER right then.  So, that I did.

She (I'll call her W) answers and I'm like "What's the deal?".  W informs me that there was an incident the other night and a patient made a complaint that we were arguing, and that it was not the first complaint regarding that fact.  Another thing W said was that David tends to come to my defense because we are married.  Okay...that's a crime?  But I'm still confused here so I say "What arguement?  David & I have never had an arguement the entire time we've worked together".  Well, W informs me, that is not the case, and she now has enough complaints to stop this, and that we should have never been allowed to work together in the first place, and if she had known we were married it would have never been allowed. 

Okay, now back up a minute.  I tell W that "I have been honest with you from Day #1 about David & I being married and nobody had a problem with it, including the ER Medical Director."  So W says "Well, I didn't know about it for 2weeks".  And my question back was "So if you had a problem with this why have you continued to allow us to work together for the last 7months?"  No good answer except that it hasn't been a problem, but now it is.

Okay...back to the arguement that David & I supposedly had.  I'm like "We didn't, nor have we ever had an arguement at work".  She like "well that is not what the patient said".  I told W that we had a disagreement because he jumped ahead of me and put in an EJ (external jugular) IV when I didn't have everything together and then got upset because we lost the vein.  But he wasn't mad at me and we didn't yell.  I told W that what I said to him was something that I would have said to any doctor.  It was not a fight, and we did not raise our voices.  Well...W says, that is not the report that I got.  Well, I say, you got wrong information.

So I'm like what else?  What other incident.  So W brings up this incident from 2months ago when I got into a fight with a surgeon in the ER.  He was inappropriate, rude, yelled at me, and called me a "stupid idiot little nurse!".  Okay....I yelled back.  The guy then physically came after me.  Then, and only then, did David step in and try to stop this other doctor.  Well, I'll back up, he had already tried to calm him down by telling him we were working as fast as we could, but I guess that didn't work.  I told W that David would have come to the defense of any of the nurses had this surgeon treated them the same way.  Well, it is perceived differently because we are married, W informs me.  Oh well, of course, how silly of me.

So basically you are telling me that because we are married we are held to a different standard, and that it is not okay for my husband to defend me, and it's not okay if we have a disagreement.  Bullshit!

David made a few phone calls before he went to work angry and upset.  He got off one phone call and said "I can't believe you told that patient we were married!".  I'm like "Whoa!  I did not!  I hardly had anything to do with her as I was working in triage and just brought her back and tried to get everything started as she was a chest pain with a significant cardiac history.  I never told her we were married, and she never asked me!"  Well...nowI know where the source of that information.  The nurse who took over and took care of that patient for the remainder of the night.  Pretty interesting cause she's like all buddy-buddy to David cause they used to work together in Muskogee.  I told David from the beginning there was something about her I couldn't trust and that he shouldn't either.  Well, Nurse B better watch her back is all I can say cause what goes around, comes around.  Not that I'm plotting revenge, but I've been around long enough to know that God evens up the score.

Another thing she brought up was an issue that David had with one of the FastTrack techs.  “How is that my problem?  I wasn’t even in the room at the time…I was in triage.  How does that involve me?”  No good answer on that one…just that W is “sure there is more to it.”  Really?  What?  If I’m not even in the room when the disagreement took place between two people, the subject didn’t concern me nor was it about me, how is that my fault?  W says “I’m looking into that”.  Well, you go ahead.  I knew this girl was going to complain though, she has a strong history of writing up PA’s and doctors when she feels she is in the right.  Now, just where is it that she gets all her medical training as she is going to school for criminal justice or something like that?  Makes you go hmmmm…

 

I found out after David went to work that the nurse for the FastTrack also made a complaint about us working together.  States that David went to FastTrack one night several weeks ago to look at little girl who had shoved a rubber band up her nose and that he was “inappropriate”.  Okay.  So I ask W again “How does that involve me?”  She said that this nurse stated that I went with him and escalated the situation.  What situation?  I wasn’t down there!  How is that escalating a situation…. and what was the situation.  I don’t even know if I was working that night cause I don’t distinctly remember the patient.  But if she was sent to FastTrack, I wouldn’t because I don’t work down there and it is down the hall from the ER.  The FastTrack nurse is difficult to work with, lazier then hell, and has been denied the renewal of his contract because of his incompetence.  He has been asked to help out when we were literally slammed and refused to come off his hour dinner break…which by the way is only supposed to be 30minutes if you are lucky enough to get one.  He was inappropriate with me on more than one occasion and finally David had enough of it and told him to stop his crude comments.  The next day he was like “I didn’t know that you and Dr were married?!”  So….that’s your excuse for being crude with me?  If you had known my husband was around you wouldn’t have said those nasty remarks and sexually harassed me?  Yeah, I thought so.  I don’t think much of him either.  So basically this is his comeback…making up a lie to “get even” with David calling him on being nasty to me.  Whatever.  I was going to make a formal complaint but David talked me out of it saying “I’ll take care of it quietly”.  Now I realize that was not the best approach with this guy.

 

So tell me again why David and I can’t work together?  W was like “I’ll check a little more into it and get back with you tomorrow.  How can I reach you?”  By telephone…isn’t that the most common way?  Basically this is bullshitting right down the middle cause she is not going to change her mind.  She doesn’t like David and has been looking for an excuse.  If there were legitimate incidences where there was cause for concern it would have been addressed long ago.  Fact is there are no legitimate issues.  But…I doubt we will be allowed to work together, and that really sucks!