Stepdown to Hell

I worked Saturday night in a unit that makes me ill. It is one of the stepdown units that has a very bad reputation within the hospital. At one time there were four different stepdown units and one closed. The staff of the closed unit were given the chance to rank where they wanted to be placed in the remaining three stepdowns by selecting numbers one through three. This particular unit came in last on everyone's selections.

A few things make the unit a hell hole! It is the only stepdown that accepts stable vent patients. It is also the only stepdown unit that never received updating and looks drab and nasty. The real kicker is that every nurse/tech/secretary with a piss poor attitude seems to end up on this particular unit. Plus it is an enormous cluster fuck even on the best of days!

So I get the news that I am being sent there. I get my five patients and hear a rumor there is a tech on the floor, but I never see her. The staff are the weekend group and are particularly vile and very unprofessional. At one point during the shift they are all talking loud and laughing about shaving balls and oral sex. Mind you, family members are walking by and most of the patients can also hear these vile fat old birds cackling away at the nurses station.

I want nothing to do with this group, so I keep away and remain focused on my patients, who were not that bad a group.

My shift started out on a bad note as I am told there are no keys to the med boxes. Each floor is responsible for providing keys to the float pool and float nurses to access meds to give the patients, but far too often they do not have any. Their solution is to share with someone else or prop the doors open. Both solutions are unacceptable and it bugs the fuck out of me this place cannot seem to get its shit together!

I cannot stand this place and I count the days until freedom!!