A BREAKDOWN IN AUTHORITY

Saw my ER Medical Director last night while visiting ( I worked ICU last night....you know, keeping the skills up and the paperwork shuffling). I hadn't seen him for a couple of weeks. Jokingly I asked, "So you still work here?"

He replied, "I tried to fire myself, but I didn't get the email."

This is my crew. Now you know why I like working with them. They're completely off the wall......but then, remember where we are!

Our night staff is mostly contract workers, like me. We make up 4 out of 7 nurses on the night shift. We contract for months at a time, and get housing and salary. Most of the contract nurses have extended to the point that they've been here for a couple of years. Great crew, we work well together and we're a tight team. We like our docs, do the job, and don't get involved in the politics, like good night nurses.

But now the bean-counters at the hospital have come up with a NOVEL IDEA.......! LET'S NOT RENEW CONTRACTS FOR ANYONE WHO'S BEEN HERE OVER A YEAR! LET'S JUST OBLITERATE THE WHOLE NIGHT CREW! It's not like they have dozens of nurses lined up to take our jobs (they DON'T) or it doesn't cost more to find and orient and train new contract nurses (it DOES) or better yet, force us to go staff and relinquish our housing (NO NO NO!). Who's lying awake at night thinking up these novel ways to save money?

We like Key West. We don't like it enough to be forced to go staff. We've all travelled before. We can do it again, and we've all said so, as a united front.

I've heard the ER Director, and a lot of the docs hospital-wide have gone up to bat for us. I hope they get the point across.