You Make It Easy

Hurricane.

Maya~

"How's your boy?" Bridget asks as I chart my current patient's records and medical history.

"Oh, he's good. They're a couple of games away from the World Series."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"Who are they playing?"

"Dodgers. They're coming back tonight after the game."

"So they're doing good?"

"Yeah, they're doing really good."

"That's good. Are you going to any more games?"

"I might. I won't have great seats but even just being there is fun."

I click through the chart, moving to my next one as Sydney comes through the nurse's station, "Ladies, less talking, more working."

She has her back turned to me so I mock her. Bridget laughs. "What?" Sydney asks.

"Oh, I was just remembering what one of my patients told me earlier today. He was severely drunk and freely speaking his mind."

What a save. "Oh, well, more working, we have a lot of patients today."

For someone who isn't working the floor and refuses to help or hire more people, I don't think she can say that. "Well, we'd be less busy if we had more hands helping," I tell her.

"Maya, we've been over this, I can't just hire people from off the street."

"I'm not telling you to do that. But you complain about how we can't handle more than a few handfuls of patients at a time and you wonder why they sit there for so long. We don't have enough people. You yell at the CNAs for no good reason. The RNs run to me for anything remotely simple because you yell at them too. Don't be pissed when we can't handle our patients because we don't have enough nurses on the floor."

She starts to walk away from us, carrying her pink clipboard in hand with nothing important clipped in, "God forbid she puts on a pair of gloves and helps," I say quietly.

"What was that?" she asks, turning back to me.

I might as well say it. She doesn't have the power to fire me. "You were once an RN and I know you still have your license. You could put on some gloves and help in times like this."

"I'm not an RN anymore. I'm head of all the NPs."

"That doesn't make you incompetent to help out once in a while, especially on days like this where we're packed with patients."

"It's not my job anymore."

"And it's not my fault if I have to do my job half-ass because we don't have enough people."

"If you have a problem with the way I staff, take it up with HR."

"I plan to."

"I'll tell you now, that you're on thin ice."

It's hard not to laugh. "No, I'm not. I'm the best NP you have. But I'll take up the way you staff with HR and see what they can do because clearly, your way isn't working."

She huffs and walks away from us. I let out a frustrated sigh. "I love it more than anything when you rip into her because nobody else will."

"I have to protect my RNs and CNAs somehow."

"We appreciate it."

I go back to charting, "You will definitely need to call your fuck buddy tonight."