We are getting new phones at work. Big Whoop right? Well sadly enough these phones are evidently so complicated and different that you have to have training before they get them installed.
Training? For Phones? I understand when I have to have training for CPR... you don't want those skills getting rusty. I understand when I have to have training on wound care... things change and techniques need to improve. I understand when I have to have training on the new EKG machine... that thing is fucking complicated. But phones? Really?
Evidently yes, as I was scheduled for an hour of training on our new phones. And not just training for me... I'm now going to be expected to train the remainder of our staff. Our current phone setup is fairly basic. There is one phone line into the prison and every phone then has an extension number. When inside the prison you simply dial the extension number to get the phone you want, and all the extension numbers are 4 digits. For example, the clinic where I work is 2000. The other clinic is 3000. The med room on the south is 2500. The med room on the north is 3500. My supervisor is 2200, while her supervisor has a number on the south (2300), and one on the north (3300). Basically, North side extensions are in the 3000 range, while the south is in the 2000 range. Easy Peasy. (all of these numbers are changed to save the innocence of yet to be convicted numbers)
There are other features like putting someone on hold, transferring a call to another extension, and voice mail, but really we (by we I mean the RNs and LPNs) never use them. If we have need to put someone on hold we put the handset down. We don't transfer people as more often than not it hangs up on them anyway. Instead we give them the number to call themselves. And voicemail? We don't have individual extensions.
So I went to the training and to way I'm underwhelmed is an overstatement. The new phones have a button for putting someone on hold. Sounds simple right? Well it took the 'teacher' 10 minutes to demonstrate how to use the button. This training is for idiots. Idiots. To put someone on hold you... wait for it... press the hold button.
Wow. Thank God they sent me for this training. I never would have figured out that complex process.
To be honest, most of the demonstration of the 'hold' function was how to reconnect the call. You can't simply press the hold button again, instead you have to use one of the soft keys with 'resume' above it.
I should pause here and explain that we (there were three other nurses in this training) were all sitting in front of phones but to ensure that we could hear if connections were made we were doing all of this training with the phones on speakerphone. We never touched the handset itself. So after she went through and ensured that the other people knew how to resume a held call she came to me. Evidently my boredom was easily read on my face as she directed me to call one of the other trainees, put her on hold, then resume the call.
I rolled my eyes, hit the speakerphone button, dialed my classmates phone, waited for her to connect the call, pressed the hold button.... then picked up the handset. Voilà!! The call resumed. I just looked at her and said in a deadpan "We wouldn't use speakerphone in the clinic... you know... hippa laws and all."
The teacher was not impressed. In fact I think I pissed her off.
Good.
Sadly that didn't stop her form continuing the lesson. We learned how to set up and check voicemail (something we won't use), transfer a call (we might occasionally use that), park a phone call and then pick it up on another extension (not gonna use it), create a conference call (not gonna use it), change the ring tone (wtf!?), and use the directory.
The directory would be nice. It could list all the extensions that we use on a regular basis like the other clinic, the med rooms, the individual units, and even the pharmacys. But no... there is only a 'corporate' directory. It lists people. I'm actually listed in it... with the phone number of the prison. No extension. I can find the number for the Governor in the directory, but I can't find the number for B unit or 3 Block.
Useless.
Oh.. and those nice and tidy extension numbers? Well to get this wonderful bevy of important new features we are losing the extension numbers. We'll now have to dial a seven digit number. And the entire phone system will be VOIP. Which means it will be using our internet connection. Our internet connection goes down at least once a month and is down for hours on end. Our internal phone system has never gone down.
So there are a bunch of bells and whistles that we nurses won't use (I'm sure the HR department and the administration will love some of these features "WOW a Voicemail button!!"), we lose our easy to memorize or write down extensions, and it will now go down for hours at a time.
I'm sure this is costing the state millions and millions of dollars. In the meantime we have a suction machine that may have seen time in the Korean war. Way to prioritize!
So we recently transfered an inmate to another facility. Transfers happen all the time, but this one is special. It seems that he had his property completely and thoroughly searched and the officers found... wait for it... about half a pound of heroin.
This did not look good for our facility. The general consensus is that one of the new food service employees was smuggling in small amounts to this particular inmate. It's of course possible that it was any of the hundreds of employees (administration, health care, officers....), one of the visitors, or even that it got smuggled in through a shipment.
One thing that our facility is now doing to prevent further humiliation is having everybody go through a complete search before entering the secured perimeter. Previous to this all employees still had to empty our pockets and walk through a metal detector. Randomly some employees would be subjected to an additional pat down. Every few weeks there would be a 'major shakedown' and everybody would get a pat down that day.
We'll go ahead and call those the good 'ol days. Now we have to empty our pockets, walk through the metal detector, get a pat down, remove our shoes, remove our socks, show the officer the bottom of our feet, and have them pick up and inspect our shoes.
I had to go through this new security procedure four times yesterday (in for the begining of the shift, in from phone training, in from a trip to the pharmacy, in from lunch break). It's time consuming, annoying, and a bit humiliating. Most people aren't exactly proud of our feet, but more than that it shows a disrespect to employees that already had to go through a state background check (not to mention the FBI background check that nurses have to go through). I of course heard dozens of complaints about it from almost everybody that had to go through the procedure. I didn't offer a single complaint. You know why?
I'm not the one performing this security check.
I may have to look at and touch various body parts (including 'dicks and butts') on a daily basis, but I do so in a health care setting. And I don't have to spend 8 hours in a room where everybody is removing their shoes and stinky socks. And trust me... those are some STINKY socks.
I have a coworker that has no comprehension of 'Work Ethic'. He's a good enough nurse, but he goes to great lengths to avoid making any effort. One of his daily tasks is to do the diabetic line. The insulin dependent diabetics all have to go through the line to check their blood sugar and get their prescribed insulin (obviously they aren't allowed insulin and needles in their personal property). ALL needles are considered 'critical tools' in the correctional facillity and that means we have to account for every single one. We have thousands of insulin needles.
So after each diabetic line the nurse has to put an inmate name next to each needle used in the critical tool book. At the beginning of my shift I have to account for all the critical tools. I have to count each and every needle and if I am missing one or more, there is a fairly simple procedure... I call control and tell them that I have a critical tool missing. They give me 30 minutes (with the assistance of two officers) to find said critical tools and if we are unable to locate them, they shut down the prison. All movement ceases, and every inmate is searched (along with every employee) until the critical tool is located.
Obviously there is room for human error. If I find a needle missing I don't immediately pick up the phone and start the countdown. Instead I investigate all the possibilities. With insulin needles it's fairly easy... I find the nurse that performed the last diabetic line and have them help me fix the error (they more than likely forgot to account for one of their used needles).
So back to this employee. He doesn't see any need to account for his needles when he's finished with the diabetic line. He would rather wait for the end of his shift and then account for all of his critical tools. Technically I shouldn't allow him to do that. I have to sign that the 'count' is correct at the beginning of my shift and it's more or less a lie when he hasn't accounted for the 50 or so insulin needles.
But I'm all about teamwork too. For a long time I was able to count on the fact that he would correctly account for his usage. A couple weeks back... he didn't.
He left the facility without his needle count done. I had a hole of 48 needles with no signatures. Worse yet I couldn't reach him on the phone. If I could have reached him it would have been a simple matter of having him come back and do his fucking job. As is, I had to stretch the truth and account for the needles myself. If someone were to look upon that, they'd see the obvious glaring flaw... I was accounting for needles used before I entered the facility. And who would get in trouble for that. Me.
I more or less let it fly. Others have picked up slack when I haven't done a good enough job and I was willing to let him slide on this. But ever since then I call him out when doing my count. If he hasn't performed his needle count I stop my own count, find him, and tell him that he has to finish it before the end of the day.
Yesterday he did it again. I was at the phone training when he left for the day. After the training I had to make a trip to the pharmacy so another nurse found his error. Another nurse called him up and told him he needed to come back and fix the count.
This no work ethic colleague of mine said no. He refused to come back and fix his error.
Now I wasn't on the phone call, obviously, so I don't know how the conversation went. Maybe he was busy taking care of his kid. Maybe the other colleague didn't push the issue. Maybe he was driving and the connection got dropped. But at the end of the day he made an error that will reflect badly upon me and was unwilling to return and fix the problem.
I'm all about teamwork, but this is now fucking me. Yes, I'm fairly sure that he didn't 'lose' a needle. But I can't be sure of that. And my name is sitting right there saying that every damned needle is accounted for.
I was so close to picking up the phone and calling control and letting them handle it. They would not hesitate to call up my colleague and force him to come back and fix his error. But that's a scorched earth campaign. Undoubtedly he would be fired. I would be in trouble too as I had already called the count good. It would be a major black eye on my supervisor and all of healthcare as well.
So... I did what I try to never do. I tattled. Yes... I feel like a five year old saying that, but writing up an email and 'telling on' my co-worker also makes me feel that way. Hopefully my supervisors can handle this and get him to account for his needles properly. Hopefully he can accept that he did something wrong and when given a chance to make it right, didn't. I just doubt that this is how that's going to play out.
My supervisors are a little bit too nice. They may well just take him aside and tell him that he has to do better in the future. But they've noticed that he hasn't been doing his 'best' or anywhere near it for some time now. I think they'll drop the hammer and write him up for it. If that happens I again hope he can grow up and take it like a man. I've been written up officially and learned from the experience. But if he's so childish that he takes it like a boy and lashes out at me....
Well I know I do my job well enough and if he wants to take me on I don't fuck around. He'll end up without a job.
OK... enough of this work stuff. It's Saturday morning and I've got some Football to watch!
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