WRMC

Well now, What is WRMC? Is it a am radio station or a medical center?

I'm not sure...

It's sort of like a circus.

Or maybe a zoo! It does have monkeys... and some of them fly!

I began working at WRMC in 2003 after I got fired my my job as a nursing supervisor at Cutthroat Community Counseling Center

My first day at WRMC and just getting around the center was a real challenge. I had to go to the third floor, yet there was no third floor button on the elevator key pad!

I brilliantly used my powers of deduction:

. I got my parking pass which looked like a really cool bumper sticker:

I also picked up a copy of this:

I met with Amy Strator, the director of the psych division at WRMC:

I learned a lot from Amy and the various mandatory seminars on WRMC's administrative methods.

Administration at WRMC likes to play games. One of the games is a lot like MonoPolio.

A couple of years ago, Amy had a real penchant for calling me down to HR on a regular basis.

She once called down to HR on a Monday morning after I had worked three 12 hour MN shifts.

For the time being, let's just say that my reaction was a bit "prickly".

I now share some of my MonoPolio game pieces with the patients:

I have filed objectively factual reports alerting my supervisor Margie and psych division director Amy about witnessed patient abuse and possible medicare fraud.

This is how Amy prioritized the situation:

I never heard anything from any administrative official regarding the issues of alleged patient abuse or Medicare fraud. However, three hours after I neglected to complete the stupid redundant piece of paperwork, Amy left a message on my home answering machine inquiring as to why I had not completed the form.

Working at WRMC can be very stressful. if I feel overwhelmed, I deal with the stress by going on break, finding a nice quiet place to lay in the corner, suck on my thumb, cry, and soil myself.

I'm only kidding!

I usually don't soil myself!

A lot of my coworkers are fun and we sometimes play games in order to relieve the stress of our jobs. For example, two of the psych units are connect by a back hallway behind the nurses stations, and one time we used it and a toiletry in a game of sport:

Working with great coworkers is probably the greatest stress reliever there is. No matter what the conditions, when you know you can count on your coworker to cover your ass and know that they will provide quality services, when you can easily do what you set out to do and want to help them make their job easier and better, when you can joke around with each other, then you've got great coworkers and primo conditions.

Eleanor, Rooty and I have way worked together intermittently and regularly for over 14 years.

An agency nurse once commented, "You three work together like a well-oiled machine".

Another coworker, Safety Coach RN, called us "The Dream Team"!

There's always talk about lawsuits against the hospital after we hear of a situation where a patient's condition worsened and care was not properly rendered and/or documented.

Such was the talk of a patient I admitted some time ago. All I heard were stories from other staff members and no administrative official ever said anything to me about the patient, so I wasn't concerned.

One morning recently, I had to attend a mandatory inservice on safety which primarily focused on duties and documentation having to do with staff assignments, patient rounds, observation levels, restraints, and fall risks.

Again, this patient that I had admitted was discussed. I don't remember exactly what was said, but it had to do with the patient's worsened condition and staff's intervention and documentation.

At the end of the inservice, the second-in-command of the psych division, my boss's boss, approached me and said, "There's something I've been meaning to tell you" and she again referred to the aforementioned patient.

Her exact words were: "Your documentation saved our ass!"

Okay. Maybe I'm pushing it a bit. But I want to get this site going, and we all know that sex and drama sells.

One week, I save WRMC's "ass" and the next week I make a med error. No big deal- a higher dose of a steroid than ordered- but still, a med error.

As soon as I realized my error, did the wrong thing, I did all the right things: Contacted administration, the NP, MD, monitored the patient and filled out the necessary paperwork.

Patient did fine, coworkers were understanding, but still: A humbling experience.

Ever thus...

WRMC has a reputation in the community that its worked hard to get. This is a conversation I had with my favorite checker at the supermarket:

There's a little known fact about the Bates Motel that's not mentioned in the movie. It seems that Norman had hired an elderly British gent a to work at the motel. This elderly British gent referred to Norman as "Master". Norman liked the title so much, he added it to the motel's sign.

WRMC held a seminar there.

My wife B use to work at WRMC as a nurse on the med-surge floor. One time, a large patient fell and in preventing the patient from injury, Belinda was injured. She had to follow up by going to the ER.

Sadly to say, there were some complications...

We often get patients on the psych units who are put off by the fact their stay will not be one like a stay in a hotel:

I've thought of coming up with a guide so newly admitted psych patients will know what to expect:

This guide could make patients aware of certain things in order to avoid the above situation:

After nearly 16 years at WRMC, they've finally designated and will pay extra, each shift, for an RN to be assigned the responsibility of acting as the "Charge Nurse".

In order to motivate sluggish coworkers, I got an idea for a much needed position from this 1917 advertisement :

For 15 years working at Wrongway Regional Medical Center (WRMC), the regular weekend house supervisors, Beth & Seth, were supplied by the medical side. Basically, Beth & Seth covered the whole hospital, making rounds, doing staffing, fetching supplies, and "assisting" in other ways. They rotated 12 hour days and MN shifts every weekend.

Then, about a year ago, the psych division of WRMC started supplying their own house sups and the change was incredible! Christy, the first weekend MN house sup, actually came to the units and  worked, helping with patient care, putting out fires, assisting with admissions, etc!

I recall one shift right after the psych house sups began: I had been pulled to the women's psych unit from the geriatric psych unit and had three separate problems going on, involving behaviors. Christy dealt with one of the behaviors, got orders, and charted while I dealt with the other two. I told her how much I appreciated her assistance and sang her praises.

Christy took another position last January to become the director of the Intake Center, and Mandy took Christy's place. Things stayed the same and got even better! Where Christy was very, very good, Mandy was even better! Mandy is a joy to work with and she's been mentioned several times in some of my past threads.

WRMC is experiencing a staffing shortage, for a variety of reasons, from higher acuity patients to staff getting fed up and quitting. So, the MN RNs who work as psych house sups are being integrated back to the units. The MN medical house sups, who had been integrated back into the units about a year ago will, once again, be "assisting" on the psych side.

In comparison, the regular medical house sups, Beth and Seth, are worthless. Belinda, my medical nurse wife, worked on the medical side of WRMC for 12 years and she said they were worthless over there too. Getting them to do anything aside from making rounds and yammering is like pulling wisdom teeth with a pair of needle-nosed pliers.

Beth is a hyper-verbal, nasal-voiced, bubble headed bleach blonde, who stands around going on and on about her private life and opinions as though they were interesting. She once stood at the NS counter for 45 minutes yammering to my work wife Eleanor and then said, "Well, I guess I should go down to central supply for CCU because they needed something".

And regarding staffing, Beth sucks rocks. One time, as a regular RN walked into the hospital, Beth said, "Oh, I guess I should have called (so and so) and told her she was put on low census".

Beth has made changes in scheduling, sent staff to other floors, and pulled staff without informing the RN on the unit: "Where's (so and so)?" "Beth pulled her." "What are you doing here?"  "Beth told me to come here."

And Seth isn't any better. He's a grumpy old dude a few years younger than me, who often says about any given situation, "Well, what do you want me to do about it?!" Belinda told him, "Your job, Seth!"

Last weekend, with numerous patients on 1:1's, a therapeutic hold, seclusion, admissions, addressing medical concerns, some slugs for staff, and behaviors from both patients & families, I made it through without losing my cool because Mandy shouldered some of the weight. She filled out some necessary paperwork, contacted the psychiatrist, and did some charting.

Beth & Seth would have been useless- more than useless- a PITA with which to put up. I told Mandy, "Retirement is looking all the better!" She has sent a written proposal to administration that she continue in the position of house sup for at least the 19-2300 part of the 12 hour MN shift, the busiest portion.

We'll see what happens.