That Foreigner

I stayed home from work today with a fever and headache. The rules have changed at work, due to Medicaid cuts plus chronically low census: no overtime. I work like fury until 11 PM and drop the work in its tracks and clock out.

Last night Homeland admitted a lovely lady from the Philippines, who speaks only Tagalog, although her family helps out with English. Since she has anxiety and dementia, as well as not speaking English, it will be challenging to meet her needs. One of the CNA's it turns out, speaks Tagalog, or she would not have taken her evening medications. Anyway, her arrival turned out to be deeply disturbing to her roommate, "Sally."

Sally came storming out of her room, "I'm not sleeping in that room with that foreigner!!" I said, "My grandparents were foreigners." She said, "My grandmother only spoke German, and we never let her out in public. We didn't let her out of the house. It's just how I was brought up." I swallowed my astonishment and introduced her to the lady's daughter. "Huh!" said Sally, striking the ground with her walker. She refused to even use the same bathroom and spent the evening in the TV room, angry and ranting.

My response to this was not very positive. I figured if she was unwilling to share a room with another human being who looks and speaks differently, that was her problem, and I would have let her stay up all night. The night nurse took pity on her, though, and was rigging her up with a different room as I clocked out, leaving my charting behind.

With these cutbacks, I keep saying prayers for protection. With two admits to do, and several family members to speak with, a few doctor's orders, and it took until almost 10 PM to finish the admissions, the time wasn't there to finish my Medicare charting. With administration adamant about no overtime, this is a no-win situation. All I can do is do my best, work as efficiently as I can, be as polite and assertive as I can, and pray.