Yea, as a Unit Secretary you didn't quite know the plight of a nurse. Now as nurse, I sort of wish I didn't know the plight. My story from what I understood is unique, but I don't believe that it is at all. I think it happens quite often.

Being a single parent in nursing school wasn't a damn picnic. Studying and trying to handle bills on 20 hours a week, btw I received a scholarship from my job for nursing school. Some poeple didn't believe I could do it but I did, and when I did I was told, "We can't keep you on payroll if you graduate." Make matters worse, the scholarship offered 2 years in the OR in return, which meant I was guaranteed a job. FALSE!
That was the first of many disappointments. I ended up landing a job in Heart/Lung telemetry which was fine except the dayshift nurses talked crazy to ya & one literally physically abused me with a chair. Needless to say the management wouldn't do anything about the poor souls who hated their job, they were willing to let the good people walk to save face. Really?

I landed a really neat job at an affiliate surgery center. I felt blessed. Better pay, alright coworkers. But the nursing shortage was a beast and being the only CV Nurse I was always being called in and stuck with all the CV patients. I don't remember there ever being an "on-call" stipulation anywhere. But oh well. Soon the pimple started rearing it's ugly head; started noticing that the nurses and the leadership really didn't have a clue on managing emergencies. Didn't know much about documentation & when it came to core measures, ummmmm, yep.

So, there was a lot of backstabbing, people losing jobs 2 days after they were placed on probation by a two-faced schemer. That same two-faced schemer became the CM and she wrecked havoc on the crew. This is where the story gets good. She had personal problems with anyone that was married, had kids or did a good job at work. Her tactics went form banning people from using their cell phones in the breakroom to cutting your hours, suspending you because she didn't like you and any other maniacal plots she could come up with.

And just when I'm thinking it can't get any worse.....

Schemer liked to yell at you in the hallway in front of the patients' rooms, even walk in the room to holler at you while you are with the patient. Schemer even liked to talk to you about things that didn't apply to you. Schemer even liked talking down about her employess while interviewing new employees. Yea, Schemer was a mess. But somehow the leadership didn't mind, they thought she did a good job (the job everyone else but her performed). Schemer yelled at me one too many times, I tried to be professional, but it seemed as though Schemer liked to be put in her place, she actually liked confrontation and confusion. She lived for it. I started avoiding her, she started cutting my hours. She wanted a confrontation and I didn't give her one and then I was suspended. I learn via everyone else she suspended me, beccause remember, Schemer likes confusion. Financial crises..

I was offered my first travel assignment, I was excited. Well, you know Schemer, she let me go on the spot. Single parent three kids, no work.
AAAhhh, you'd think things get better, it didn't, turned out the travel assignment was a bust, left us homeless.

I try to think how is it that I worked so hard to end up with my family and I homeless. How is it that an RN can be homeless? How is it that you put your heart in your work and someone doesn't like you because you like what you do? And use it against you? I beat myself up daily. Sometimes I think that if I stood up for myself more, this would not have happened, but then I'd be labelled the "Angry Black Woman." I pray at night hoping I'd wake up and this were all a bad dream. But it's not a dream.

Just trying to pick up the pieces before I end up in pieces