I am Angry!

This has been building, but the staff and administration have finally gotten under my skin - with good reason. I am a firm believer that a staff is as good as the higher ups, their training, and their communication ability. We have begun to rate very low in my opinion with the influx of new staff, green to emergency room work, and being bogged down on redundent paperwork. In addition the punitive nature from our higher ups has got the more seasoned staff grumbling to themselves.

I am still wondering if I should play my Trump card and contact our Regional manager. When an entire staff is complaining about punitive measures it doesn't make for a pleasant work environment - to say the least. But this is real life in the E.R. People are angry - for righteous reasons. They are also anxious because they don't know how to handle their affairs. Suddenly I am thrust into a world where clients, staff and even myself are exactly the same!

I am angry! I don't want to feel irritated when a psychotic client complains about how long they have to wait while a person who is playing with the system for SSI benefits gets catered to. Our job is to assess who needs to get rushed to the front of the list for quicker stabilization. Our new staff member was oblivious to it and as a result the psyhotic person leaves frustrated and doesn't get the help they came for.

Trust me, I've done this too. It's all part of the growth process in this industry. Does this staff person need to have this incident on their permanent personell file? Our administration thinks so. "They may go out and hurt themselves or others." Yeah right. This incident isn't that dark and mental health shouldn't be about taking punitive measures towards people who are busting their tails trying to improve the lives of the thousands that enter our doors. Is in the same personell file examples of incredible deeds of compassion depicted? There aren't any in my file and each day is filled with that.

So I am angry. Feel abused. And wonder when in the world is this irritation going to end. If it doesn't soon I'm playing that Trump card.

Peace to you all!