The last time I worked anesthesia for labor and delivery, I was finishing up some charting, and wondering when the next anesthesiologist was going to show up to relieve me.
Sitting in a chair, on the edge of her seat, three computers down, was the ward clerk. She had worked all night, and I thought it was unusual of her to sit there instead of at the front desk.
Seven a.m. came about five minutes later.
She logged in to this computer time card system, clocked out, and literally RAN out the door!
The nurses have to do this on this little machine in the hall. There is one by the elevators, and another by the main O.R.
I see them waiting near it at the end of the day, waiting to go home. I also see people clocking in and out for lunch relief at the operating room too.
I have to admit, the only way I can do my twenty-four hour call, is to count down, just like this, in my mind, 'they can only hurt me for seventeen more hours...' all the way down to the end of my call shift.
Is this part, the 'running a business' for a profit or non-profit facility healthy?
I read an E.R. Doctor's column on 'Wellness' today--and he said, 'I hadn't seen the beach in one year. I live five minutes from the beach, and to see the ocean, all I have to do is look out my window. But with my stressful life, and busy schedule, I hadn't seen the ocean, or been to the beach, for a whole year.'
That is was started his search to seek wholeness and wellness in his life. He says it's like a sitting stool with three legs--one is sleep, the other is exercise, and the last is work. Without all three, you're not going to have a stable chair, or complete health.
He has a good point.
What do you think?
Aloha and Mahalos,
Namaste,
Peace,
Reiki Doc