As I mentioned earlier, I’ve gone from flying a desk six hours and moving two hours to flying a desk for two hours and moving patients for six! I am getting blisters on my hands under the fingers that wear rings. My entire body hurts, because 200+ pound patients on an already heavy bed, back to back for hours is kicking my tail. I’m not as young as most of my staff (55 next month) and it shows! Most of my transports were NOT the usual. I had one on a bed I wasn’t familiar with and had to be laterally moved to another bed in the hall because the room was too small for two beds and the CVU needed their bed back. I had one patient with a cpap machine coupled with 2 liters of oxygen that was going to go in distress if I didn’t get them to dialysis ASAP.

I try not to complain, but I was an administrative supervisor until a week or so ago, because half my transport team are furloughed. I didn’t sign up for this, but it keeps the mortgage paid. While I do love the interaction with most of my patients? Some are total jerks, like the guy that thought it was hilarious that I was struggling with his bed. Why? Because I’d just moved several bariatric patients before I moved him and my arms and legs were on vibrate.

The census has gone from the low 100’s last week to almost 150 today, but they aren’t calling anyone else back in. 🤯 In July I will have 19 years in with this hospital, but moving to a more physical role in my mid-fifties is not setting well with me. Meanwhile, I have a dispatcher that can barely walk, who answers the occasional phone call and watches news on tv and gospel on YouTube. 🤬 She could have retired six months ago, but she hasn’t. Why would she? It’s easy money. She is what is known as a non-productive FTE, and we all have to do an additional four transports per hour to keep her employed. Productivity during a pandemic really just sucks.
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