The good, the bad, and sometimes the ugly!

Last week was quite a week at my workplace.  I'm sure it's the same everywhere - there are good days, and not so good days.
We've been really busy.  Because we have a short term skilled rehab unit, we are always having people going home, and others coming in.  Admissions and discharges are a whole lot of work.  It takes a good 2 hours to do everything related to a normal admission, and if they have anything extra going on it takes longer.  On top of that there are assessments that all the different departments have to do, and then continued things for several days.  We have been full, with people on a list waiting to come in, and often people leave, and we have an hour to get ready for the next one. So, you get the picture.  It can be stressful!
But then there are always the good things.  I meet so many wonderful people. I have residents and family members that I've remained friends with after they've gone home or their loved one passes.  There are funny things that happen, sweet things said, and sometimes just the knowledge that you have made a difference for someone.
Last week, we got the cutest gift as a thank you from someone whose sister has been with us for a year.  It was from Sharri's Berries and there were several boxes of chocolate covered strawberries, some cheesecake bites and other chocolates.

And - in a little box, were these!  These are cake pops - a Dr, a nurse and the one with the medical bag.  The staff took the Dr and nurse out and told me to bring them to my granddaughters, who loved them!  Along with this sweet gift, was an even sweeter note, thanking us for the care their sister receives.  Notes like that mean a lot, because when you deal with people, it's not always so nice.

The next day I got a taste of the not so nice.  One of our residents went into the hospital with a circulation problem.  It's something we had been monitoring and she had been seen by our Dr several times related to this.  I talk to families about anything medical that goes on and update them on any dr visits.  This lady was gone for 5 days, had a procedure to improve her circulation and returned.
On the day she came back, the director of nursing asked me to come with her to talk to the daughter who was in the building and was upset about something.   I was surprised to see someone I had never seen standing there.  This daughter had the ok to receive information, but none of the staff had ever seen her in the building.  She was furious, yelling loudly and wouldn't listen to anything I tried to tell her.  She was sure that we had never noticed a problem and thought her mother nearly lost a leg.  The DON thought she was going to hit me and told her she would call the police to have her escorted out of the building if she couldn't control herself.
It was not fun, and I have to admit that although I stayed calm, I was pretty angry.  We are not perfect, no place is, but we take good care of our people and have a good reputation, and I know this was not a problem that could have been avoided.  When her sister who usually visits arrived, she calmed down, and now hasn't been back again!

So, that's how  a few of my days went last week.  Thankfully, there are many more nice people out there than the angry ones!