morganwood wrote:
...Traveling nurses, as far a I know through association with my wife, are a very professional bunch...
...Another neat group of nurses to know are the ER/Tramua nurses...
...Linda refuses to work day shift. She will not deal with the administrators and day people. She has always worked secongd or third shift...
Hi Morganwood,
Nice to 'see' ya!
I've been around...mostly writing sappy poetry
LOL
I've met numerous 'Travellers' in the ER where I work. Most were from the South it seems. The ones I have met have unfailingly been nice people... hard working, very professional, but also friendly and helpful. Hearing those southern drawls is always charming.
(They are also amused by how 'Ro-di-lund-uhs'* speak )
I've worked a total of thirty three years in several hospitals and about sixteen years in the ER. I see the three shifts as like three different subcultures.
The first shift is dominated by the 'suits' (ie. administrators) and has many more interactions going on with external systems and even many hospital systems (eg. outpatient departments) which are closed from the end of the regular work day till the following am.
The second shift is a little 'schizophrenic' in the colloquial sense of the term. That is, for about two or three hours it acts much like the first shift.
Then, after supper, after the evening news, there is the equivalent of a collective sigh of relief that the annoying overpaid, overbearing, bureaucrats are gone and things are more relaxed.
The third shift is in many respects like the dark side of the moon.
Unless you've been there, you can't know it.
In the ER it's still fast paced of course, but on the floors there is vitually no contact with external systems (although patients may arrive from the ER to or from an intensive care or other unit). What I have observed is that third shift or 'overnight' personnel tend to share a certain bond that cuts across rank and discipline, a sort of 'we are the denizens of the night'
attitude.
*Rhode Islanders
