Nurse Blogs

I have completed my first week of orientation at my new job as a per diem hospice nurse at a local VNA. While I still feel like an impostor who knows nothing, my ignorance painfully obvious to anyone who looks at all closely, I'm feeling comfortable and warmly welcomed to my new workplace (even as contract negotiations between the union and my new employer drag into their tenth month).

Interestingly, I was allowed to leave 90 minutes early yesterday, and only today I read in the paper that there was a picket line in front of the office not an hour after I was sent home. Did my new boss know there was going to be a picket line? Did she send me home so that I wouldn't see it? Did she want to spare me the discomfort of not knowing what to do if I was caught in the middle between my new employer and my picketing colleagues? 

This union stuff is all new to me, and I don't quite know what to make of it. Still, if the negotiations increase my hourly rate, I won't complain..... 

Comment (0) Read More...