Saturdays Off

 I am still so in awe of being retired, that I don't know how to handle Saturdays.  Or Sundays for that matter. 

Why is it that these days feel twice the hours of the other days of the week? It is luxurious. 

On most weekends, the attending doctor would bring the nurses donuts.  We didn't need donuts  We needed fruit. 

We all started the shift not touching them, and by 10 AM they were gone, or at least mostly gone. 

Every. Single. Weekend. 

You would think without that donut factor, I'd be a stick thin person  right now.  Nope. (By the way nurses bring in more home cooked casseroles and treats than any other staff on a regular basis) 

I was working on my shawl, my lace shawl, 

last night, while watching Twice Born. 

It is a new documentary PBS series on in utero surgeries and the lives of the doctors and the patients. 

I know doctors are important.  It bugs the beJeezus out of me that it is not about the nurses. 

Do you think as time goes on, I'll be less defensive?

They talk about the doctor's families and their missing out on softball games for their kids, and they seem like very nice people. 

They neglect to mention how well compensated they are monetarily for their efforts.  

The ones at the bedside day in and day out for hours and hours at a time on Saturdays and Sundays and night shifts, are the nurses.  

It isn't glamorous to show nurses changing IV solutions every half an hour while trying to remain calm and see their patients big picture.  It is not TV worthy I guess to see how much stress the bedside nurse is under now a days.  

I always marveled at how many people interrupted me, the nurse, as I drew a medication or hung an IV or was actually listening to a patients heart. (stethoscope IN my ears) 

These same people wouldn't interrupt an auto mechanic looking at their engine, but they chat away and demand a nurses attention during the most error prone times. 

Customer service is the big catch phrase. 

The nurse has to be it ALL, and be it ALL for customer service surveys now a days. 

It isn't that we don't want to be it all, 

most of us were guilty of being too good nurses. 

We wore the hats of social worker, (no coverage on weekends)

infection control, pharmacist, transporter,

gate-keeper and security.  I have to  mention

the most important hat: recognizing the earliest signs of  demise,

and acting on it. 

OH my goodness where did this post go? 

I know you all have been wonderfully supportive of nurses whenever I post about my career.   

I just have to vent after watching that really good show about patients and their DOCTORS. 

My hat is off to every nurse out there still practicing. 

You have my prayers.