Another day has slipped away and I really didn't accomplish much other than eating and catching up on some much needed sleep. I don't know if we can really "catch up" on sleep or not. Are we catching up or are we banking for a later day? I guess it doens't really matter as long as a person can rest enough to feel like facing the next day.
Time seems to fly by way to fast unless I am at work. I swear the clocks move two hours ahead and one hour back during my shift. Unless there is a major deadline - then the clock goes into double time. I was working on a project the other evening (I work straight evening shifts) and I didn't realize it was close to quitting time until the night shift crew walked by my office and greeted me. "WHAT???"
Work has been a complicated and tricky place to be recently. The patient load is high and the staff availability is low. This computes to not enough nurses to work needed hours and extremely overworked nurses being asked to pick up even more shifts than they already do. I am not one of those nurses. I pick up extra shifts here and there, but due to a heart condition I cannot work the hours that I used to. I also struggle with the fact that my current profession is not the intended path I embarked on when I went back to college. It's almost comical to see the expression on people's faces when they ask "why did you want to be a nurse?" and I reply "I never intended to be a nurse - I went back to school to become a paramedic". (cricket - cricket - cricket) Sure, I make the best of my job and I do enjoy certain aspects of it, but trust me, the first solid opportunity that comes along to do something else will end up with the door hitting my ass on the way out.
I recently cut back on my hours - not because of my heart, but because I am fortunate enough that I do not need to work full time to make ends meet. Working many hours during our earlier years allowed my spouse and I to reduce our debt and put ourselves in a position of being debt free. Of course, that could very well be what caused my heart condition. The multiple jobs sometimes had me working up to 170 hours every two weeks. In addition to that I had two children to help raise. Looking back, I don't know how I did it.
My oldest son recently quit a job that he had been at for almost four years. He enjoyed the job, but he could no longer work the 12 hour shifts 5-7 days a week like he had been doing for all those years. He was a young healthy man but the physical and mental stress of the job has taken its toll on him. He got injured on the job a year ago and has since become deconditioned, overweight, and his patience level is almost non-existent. As much as my spouse and I wanted him to have a great paying job with benefits, we could not stand to see what was happening to him - his life was passing him by and his health was declining. We encouraged him to find a different job and to quit where he was. He did this and the new job did not work out for him. He is currently looking for work - but that is okay, we are in a position to help him until he finds one that is a good fit for him. I am a firm believer that if you don't like your job or your working conditions then you need to leave. No job is worth losing who you are as a person.
Random thought: What if we could agree to train in profession that has a shortage and our government would provide us up to four years of free schooling along with living expenses to help to help attain our goals? Of course we would have to maintain a standard that meets requirements, but just think of how this could help reduce professional shortages in many fields.
This is randomly me ~ Daemon
