45:16

The title of this entry is an inside joke for my friends Genny and Al. (See Al, I can mention you in my blog without being irreverent.)

It is a bit earlier than I would have liked to be out of bed. Only because I went to bed too late last night and was up too early this morning for the amount of sleep that I got yesterday morning after work. I have thought of going back to bed but think I will have some coffee and go to work a bit early to start on the next round of shuffling lab orders.

Talked with my boss yesterday about the possibility of changing my hours beginning in January and February so I could go to Philadelphia and work at Genny's shelter. He is willing to work my schedule here so I can go there and help out.

As far as watching my grand kids go, my daughter's over-reaction to me wanting to pick up a 3-11 on Tuesday pretty well sealed that. I only have 30 hours scheduled for the two-week pay period that starts with my shift today. By working a 3-11 shift, the boys would have to be at the sitter's from 2pm until about 4:30 when Michael gets home. The big kids would have to go to the sitter's after school for about 45 minutes. It isn't like Pam would have a problem dropping them off as the sitter's is around the corner and half a block up. My daughter, being the unrealistic and reactionary A-Word that she is regarding anything at all that interferes with her agenda, screams at me, "Well, I'll just find a day care and have the boys go 8 to 4:30 Monday through Friday since you can't seem to watch them." This is also the same daughter who tells me to pick up some work whenever I can. Last time, the screaming was because the day before simply wasn't giving her enough notice. This time (with 3 days notice), a full-scale hissy was warranted. I'm so done.

About going to Philly... (Yes, Genny, I'll email my resume. I did get around to reading those abstracts for the study, though.) Genny and I have very similar problems with our respective staff. The bottom line being that they just don't "get it." So, I want to go and work as part of her staff. Help with some mentoring, do some work on communication skills and interpersonal relationship skills, etc. Those same sort of things that I try and do with my staff. I can understand some of the issues that I have with my staff in relating to the clients more than I can with why Genny's staff has trouble relating with her clients.

My clientele have mental retardation (some cases quite profound) and developmental delays. My clients also have some very serious physical disabilities. It can be very difficult work. But, omg, you would think that after working with Marguerite for a year they would be able to figure out that they can give her something to do so she won't sit and scream. Let her fold washcloths and hand towels. No, they aren't folded perfectly straight, but who cares. She's productive and not bored and screaming. In some ways, my staff are very different from the people that we serve.

Genny's staff.... well, they tend to want to see themselves as very different from the people that they serve. Granted, some of her chronic homeless clients have serious mental health and substance abuse issues. The problem there isn't the clients; the problem is the system that allows them to continue to fall between the cracks rather than be proactive in serving them. Her staff, however, do not seem to want to face the reality that some type of life-changing event and the loss of two or three paychecks would put them in exactly the same position as many of the clients that come through the shelter. In talking with Genny about her staff, I kept coming away with a sense that her staff felt that the clients should feel grateful for and indebted to them simply because they were "there."

When Genny and I were talking last week about her current pending round of having to fire some staff, the topic of them "not getting it" came up again. She commented that she cannot even get her staff to understand that talking on two phones right next to someone who was trying to sleep was inappropriate because, after all, that person should be grateful just to be warm. That was enough for the huge "OH HELL NO!" streak in my personality to lurch. I was incredulous that her staff viewed themselves as being THAT different from the clients. (Granted, my staff are very different from the clients in many capacities, however, consideration and respect are not to be labelled among those differences.) Genny commented that her staff had the attitude that the clients should view them as gods. My response of "Fuck that." merited an "Exactly." from her.

Well, the immediate fix to the problem of needing to cut the staff's ego to a manageable level was decided to be to open the next house meeting with deciding which cartoon characters represented various staff. (My idea on the cartoon characters. Her idea to do it at the house meeting. LOL This is why we are evil twins. Can you see why Al is leery whenever we all three get together for a chat? He has yet to pay us back for the F-Game. Genny, please remind me what the next idea for some sport was. I can't recall it, now. It's OK. Al assures me that he reads my blog, but I know otherwise. LOL) Genny was sure that the clients would love it.

That conversation was enough to convince me that I really should offer my assistance to serve her clients by working as part of her staff. I know what her staff makes for salary. It isn't a lot of money, but it is more than my staff make. So, while I would be under-paid working on her staff, you must consider that I am already under-paid in my current position as well... to the tune of at least $7 to $10 per hour. Even more if I were to work for a staffing agency or in critical care.

Genny, being Genny LOL, took that offer and countered with a different position. They will be doing a nine-month Critical Time Intervention case study. It is a program designed to prevent homelessness in high risk groups. (High risk groups are the populations who are at greatest risk for becoming the chronic homeless.) From the two abstracts that she emailed me to read, it is an awesome model. Should be very, very successful. The study sounds quite interesting and it is a very tempting offer. It's one of those rare opportunities that is an important service, a challenge to complete, and looks good on a resume to boot, LOL!! Me, being me, will probably pass on the offer.

Though it would be a wonderful opportunity, in my heart I know that I would be far better suited to (and have more fun with) guiding the staff that prove worth guiding into how to better make a difference in the lives of the people that they serve and loving on her clients.

Her people have a myriad of health issues as well. So, I'm sure that I could find more than enough to challenge me there. Not only in cultivating enough of a level of trust with her clients but getting her staff to be observant for manifestations of medical problems.

My people (in theory) receive 24-hour medical management, and I still find that I am not in any way lacking in over-looked signs and symptoms and problems and issues..... My staff are not medical people, either. I have a few who are certified nursing assistants. I have a few who are in nursing school. (They can miss some pretty scary stuff, so I hope it comes together for them BEFORE they're given a license and turned loose upon unsuspecting ill people.) So, I do mentoring with my staff on signs, symptoms, manifestations of various illnesses. A whole lot of teaching in those areas, the truth be known. It yields good returns. I have staff who will call around and track me down to have me come assess someone and to listen to their concerns about what they are seeing that is unusual. I check out the client and then tell my staff what I need them to be observing for in order to try and help figure out what is going on with our client.... patterns and trends.

Their observations and follow-up have helped to get people evaluated at the hospital (and in this particular case, admitted) when the previous nurse had assured them that the client's problems were nothing more than "a head cold." From all appearances, it did seem (symptomatically) to be just a head cold. From what I have encouraged my staff to observe about changes in behavior and actions and in responses and in routines, they were suspicious that more was going on than was apparent. They were right. And, I got my staff some good kudos directly from our health care coordinator and assistant director for their observations and actions. (Now, I'm working on getting them a bit of extra $$ for their actions. It isn't much financially - a $25 gift card from Target, but it does help say a little more than just "good job." Especially since it was going beyond the scope of their formal job description.)

That's the type of awareness and sense of responsibility and accountability that I try desperately to impress upon my staff. There is nothing, concerning our clients, that is "not our job." We may not be the ones who can do anything to fix the problem, but we can get the problem directed to the attention of the people who can fix it.

It is a bit past 11:30. I am going to jump in the shower and head out.

I didn't bother to shower at that guy's place this morning. Just got up, came directly home, took some pain medication.

He did, at least, call when he got out of the shower and saw that I had gone. And, he did sound a bit dismayed that I had simply left without saying anything to him. I told him that I needed to take my medicine and wasn't going to get my hugs this morning anyway as he is presently angry with me (over some new disparaging rumor about his character that he admits he knows I have no connection with but will not tell me what it is). (So why is this my fault?)

"That is why you just left?"

"No, I left because I figured why be in pain AND be disappointed."

At least I had managed to get a smile out of him this morning. I heard it in his voice.

Out...

P.S. The fractal is titled "Sadness and Hope"