April 17, 2002
Well, it rained last night/this morning. I should have known, since I just washed my car and watered yesterday. I like when it rains. It's pretty sunny out now, although I am very cold. Tonoight begins my three night stretch of work for the week. It isn't too bad, only working three nights a week, when you think about it. But those three days are pretty hard to deal with. I like my job, but it can be very stressful. A law was just passed in California regarding nurse to patient ratios. Currently, it is the law that we have no more than six patients per nurse in my unit. Occasionally, we will have seven, but the seventh is usually an admit in the middle of the night. But even six is a heavy load, especially when they have a history of dementia or are incontinent all night. By next January, the ratio is supposed to be 5:1, which would be better. Having at the most five patients wouldn't be too bad. Especially if it meant starting the shift with four patients. The problem is, we are short staffed as it is. It is so hard to retain nurses and to find nurses to hire. I don't know if it's the area up here or what it is, but there aren't a lot of nurses up here. I don't know how they will meet the ratios when the 5:1 law is in place. They probably will have to lower the number of patients they admit to the hospital. I don't know how it will work. It will be interesting to see how it is when it's all in place and if they will be able to pull it off. And what will happen anyway, if they don't? Will the police come and arrest them for breaking the law? Will they get fined? Who knows. I am seriously considering the ER. We will see.