Being an adult can really suck, y'know?

[piasharn]

Talk about the month from Hell. Arg. Where the hell did the time go? I could swear Easter was only the other day...

Where to start? Well, things got started with a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that's certainly old news at this point. Truth be told, it was actually kinda fun, although I doubt I'd be saying that if my apartment building had come toppling down on top of me.

I had to work overtime, and I'll be doing more this month. Actually, that is a bit irritating. The other graveyard tech is taking a few days off, and my boss signed me up to cover her shifts without even asking me. Nooo... don't bother to see if I have other plans those days. *sigh* I'm starting to feel taken advantage of at work. It's as though my coworkers think, "Oh, she's single and doesn't have any kids or immediate family in the area, of course she can do it!" I didn't mind doing long hours or weird shifts before, because I was hoping that my willingness to do so would help me get hired in full-time. But my boss isn't doing anything to get me a more permanent position, and it's just assumed that I'm willing and able to cover any odd shifts that need filling.

I can work those shifts, but a perverse part of me want to take my name off of those days for the principle of the matter.

Plus, I'm already feeling down from seeing a patient die the other week. I know I shouldn't let it affect me so much. Death is a fact of life, and I went into the medical field knowing full well that I would be seeing this sort of thing. Still... one minute you're talking to a person, they're aware and looking right at you, a little while later that same person is lying limp on the bed, skin gray and their dull eyes not seeing anything.

I've toughened up enough that I don't go home and cry anymore, but I still seem to spend a lot of time depressed and brooding over the situation.

This isn't to say that I dislike my job. Far from it, I like what I do quite a bit. I like that I'm doing something to help people. Perhaps I'm not as closely involved as the doctors and nurses, but there's no way the doctors could diagnose patients properly without x-rays and CT scans (and ultrasound, MRI, Nuclear Medicine and other forms of medical imaging). It's just that, some times, getting them to cooperate with me is like pulling teeth, and it never ceases to amaze me how completely moronic some of them are. Seriously, I don't have any idea how some of these idiots made it through school.

I should pause here and note that not all doctors and nurses are brain dead. I've had the opportunity to work with some really gifted people, and I mean it when I say that a good doctor or nurse is worth his/her weight in gold. Some of the other ones...

I don't care that they don't know jack about Radiology and what we do. After all, that's my job, not theirs. What irritates the snot out of me is when they don't listen to me when I tell them what we need to do before an exam. It's the fact that they keep trying to force me to violate hospital policy - which not only puts the patient at risk, but also puts me in a situation where I could be sued and potentially lose my job and/or license.

I tell them what I need before the exam can be done, and they lie to me. I try to point out that this isn't something I'm saying because I think it's fun to make them do more work, I say it because that's the only way we'll get a proper study, and they whine and bitch and moan. I print out copies of the hospital's policy, highlight the relevant portions, and they outright ignore me.

'Cause, you know, they're nurses, and I'm just a lowly technologist, so they obviously know more about this stuff than me. *rolls eyes*

Like I said, not all nurses are like this. Still, a couple of weeks ago a nurse made me call my supervisor at home. At nine o'clock at night. On a weekend. Because she didn't believe me. Because she ignored me when I pulled up the policy on the computer. Because... I don't really know. Because the Radiology department is the butt monkey of the hospital, I guess.

I love my job, I just wish I was allowed to do it properly, without people giving me shit for doing things the way they're supposed to be done.