Pam's the unit coordinator for 5c, a 22-bed unit that takes the chemo and med-surg patients. She sits at the nurses station for most of the day doing all the unit's secretarial work. She schedules consults, sets up appointments for in-hospital tests a patient needs, orders supplies, and does all the paperwork for admits and discharges.
Over the last couple of years things have changed. She used to work three 12-hour shifts each week. For a stretch they had her on a typical five day 8-hour schedule. Then budget restrictions meant she worked three 12's one week and two the next. Then they decided that if the unit had fewer than 17 patients - which got changed to 18 - they'd call her and tell her not to come in or send her home early if they had too many discharges.
That was happening more and more during these summer months with all the snowbirds gone back to Minnesota. But she learned a week ago that they're calling her off even when they have 18 patients.
Monday she sent a frank but well-written email to her supervisor and the hospital administrator (who has taken an interest in Pam), and then had a conversation with her boss yesterday - the first day she worked for the last five she was scheduled. She was told that even when the census is at or near max she may not get to work. The unit is over budget for the year and she's the employee who pays the price by getting called off, thus saving them money they would otherwise pay her.
She's never had a score lower than 4 on her performance reviews and gets mostly 5's, the highest rating. And the written comments from her boss and peers are so effusive they're almost embarrassing. All of that doesn't count compared to budgetary figures and "meeting productivity goals." The tasks she would normally do will be handled by nurses' aides when they have time between their normal duties, or go undone. As you might guess, nurses' aids get paid a lot less that Pam.
Pam feels totally dissed after almost 9 years of faithful work for the hospital. She would not know this was the plan unless she'd sent that email and then asked her boss what's going on, a boss who has repeatedly told her in person and in writing how critical she is to the smooth function of the unit.
I'm angry for her.
If she's only going to work 1/2 shift every two weeks, as is the case with this pay period, why are we here when we could be here?? >>
The answer had been the insurance, but some calls to our doctors we got all our pending appointments moved forward. That means we can head to Oregon about two weeks earlier than originally planned.
The house is scheduled to close on 9/30 and today they came to the house and signed off on all the repairs they requested, items I got done Tuesday. So I think this is all but a done deal, D.V. We're paying $1 per day to stay here past the close so that's not really a factor. But it's irritating to think about staying here to maximize Pam's earning potential through to the end of the month when she's not getting any hours.
So today I reserved a truck. By the time we're done with our moving sale on Saturday, the 26th we hope to have divested ourselves of 80% of our possessions. The only reason for getting a truck this big is the loading ramp. The 12' truck doesn't have one, so 16' it is. I'll pick it up the evening of 10/9, the kids will help us load it up the next day, and we'll leave either in the evening or early the next morning. Because it's a weekend the traffic through L.A. won't be as bad, but I may still decide to leave here the evening of the 10th. If we leave Phoenix at 7 p.m. we're into L.A. about 2 a.m. and have the freeways to ourselves (Pam will follow me in the Kia).
Budget gives me 6 days to get it all done, and it's a 2-day drive - maybe 2.5 in the truck - so there's no pressure. Pam has already done a GREAT job of packing a lot of our stuff and marking things for the moving sale. I'm working hard on the truck so it's ready to ship when the time comes and taking care of some of the details involved in moving two states away.
We're feeling some pressure - packing, moving sale, truck, details, all now with a fixed deadline just over three weeks away. But if we can pull it all off it will feel SO good to pull into that three acres outside of Elmira, the hospital in the rearview mirror and nothing but working together in the future.
Nose down.
Focus, baby.
Let's get this DONE!
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