head meets pillow

One of our docs told me today that our ER is now busier than the regional trauma center an hour or so down the road - my old stomping grounds, as a matter of fact. I couldn't believe that, and said so, but he was on sure ground. He started pulling out facts and by the end of the discussion I realized that he was telling the whole, crazy truth. I was horrified, but I believed him.


I don't know why I'm surprised. We used to work hard, but at a tolerable pace. Now we just flat out run for twelve hours in a row. Lately we're always packed, always overflowing into the waiting room, always accompanied by the sounds of the medics calling in report on the patients they're bringing in any second. Our staff is working sick a lot of the time, because we're so busy that people feel guilty about calling in - even when they really should. Considering what we get exposed to on a daily basis, it would be shocking if we didn't get sick. And all it takes is a few days of running at this pace when you're sick and should be home in bed to make you even sicker for even longer...and nothing in the world you can do about it. When my co-workers finally face the fact that they're falling over it takes a lot more than one day off to get them back up to snuff. The people I work with are fabulous. It's the pace that's gonna kill me.


This is all a long winded way of saying that I've got nothing tonight. The brain drain has done me in.I've just finished the longest run of my schedule. Three straight, one off, one on. Four days on out of five. And now...


Four days off.


Back to the regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.