Sad (& Kind of Scared)

My dear husband was taking call for the unit manager this weekend ... I say "was" because he doesn't get paid for "on call" when he's actually "at work" ... which he is now.

He spent all day painting the gable on the south side of the house, then we enjoyed supper on the porch. We were getting ready to wind down for the night and the hospital called. There was a nurse who no-showed, and now he's the only one available to go in. That's NOT what he's supposed to be on call for. His job as manager on call is to advise nursing services as to who is qualified in what position, and who can and should be trusted with what responsibility. For instance, if they needed to pull a nurse from another unit, he'd help NS decide which unit needed it the most, and who would make the best mentor for a "visiting"nurse.

But tonight, he ended up going in to work. He doesn't know when he'll get off; could be 11, could be 7 AM. He promised that if he goes until 7, he'll find a place to sleep before he drives home, but this can't be a safe way to provide medical care.

I know there's a nursing shortage now, and it's tough to get nurses. It just seems odd to me that hospitals can't manage to get enough reimbursement to pay nurses what they need, but we can spend 30% of our health care dollars on paying people to come up with reasons not to pay for our medical care.

He's an excellent nurse; he's been honored numerous times by his hospital, and once by a city-wide medical publication, so I know he's going to do a better job without sleep than anyone else would in the same situation. I just hope that the night is quiet, and his charge nurse can handle most of the tougher cases. I can't imagine making the kind of decisions he makes every day, much less making them after being up for 24 hours.