work woes

I’m sure y’all have heard about the Jet Blue flight attendant who went buck-nutty after having an altercation with a passenger who couldn’t follow the rules.

Long story short: I think this is hilarious. And he is my personal hero.

The back story goes that he has been caring for his dying mother. It’s amazing what it takes to throw someone over the edge. But to quit like that? Priceless.

To do your job every day and truly love what you do for years and years is one thing. But then you just get down to it and realize that some people are really just ass holes and don’t deserve your smile and kindness. To Steven Slater, I applaud you.

I’ve only been a nurse for 5 years now. In that time I’ve had some whoppers. I’m the kind of person who will be kind and courteous to those who deserve it, but when I’m listening to the previous nurse’s report and they say the key words of, “needy,” “demanding,” “particular,” I cringe. I have a really, really hard time dealing with people like that.

I’ll give an example:

I had a patient who was clearly used to being taken care of. After she asked me to rearrange her bedside table, one that she was clearly completely able to do herself, for the tenth (I’m not exaggerating) time, I had it. Previous to this, I spent 10 minutes rubbing her feet, washing her hair, and fluffing her pillows. All this without a single please or thank you and full of demanding requests. I had other patients who really needed something and this was getting ridiculous. I took off my name badge and handed it to her.

I said, “What does this say?”

“Um, Licensed Practical Nurse.”

“OK, so where on it does it say slave?”

She looked at me and blinked. That was the end of that. She treated me with a bit more respect after that. I can only imagine what she told my boss.

So I decided that when my time comes to go completely nuts over someone, I plan on grabbing the nearest enema and running away. Just you wait.

(And why an enema you ask? Imagine if I took a controlled substance. I’d have the damn SWAT team knocking down my door, too. I mean, c’mon, the guy grabbed two beers and had helicopters and all of NYC police force banging down his door.)

So in short, this guy is my personal hero. Why is it that just because we do something for a living, we, too, can’t be human? Why do we have to sit and take it and take it, just because we’re in uniform? The second we take it off, we can do as we please and be a complete jagoff, but don’t. Why do people believe that they are better than others? That they can treat another human being with such disrespect and rudeness?

I’m sure Carly could totally weigh in on this subject, as she worked for Staples for 6 years and had to deal with some real winners.

With me, being in a nursing uniform, people just assume that I’m a tank and can take it when they yell and scream and complain. I’ve been punched, kicked, spit on, peed on, yelled at, swore at, told “I’ll f****** kill you if you come in here again,” had items thrown at me, and for what?!? Because the majority of the people I take care of are fantastic people who just need to feel better. I put up with those losers to get to the good ones. But one of these days…

Local headline: “Local nurse flips out on patient, demands an apology and storms off with an enema in each hand.”

Just you wait.