Dear Haters...
A Thank You To The Haters
Sometimes your haters are a vital part to your growth and the person you become. For myself, this is a new experience. I have had the luxury of having the right people in the right positions looking out for me wherever I go. My mother is a nurse as well and many of her friends or colleagues have known me my whole life in addition to me being part of a phenomenal professional organization, the National Black Nurses Association, where many of the members are my bosses. Only recently I had the much needed experience of a form of bulling if you will at work. One night , the president of my local chapter of the NBNA text me “please call me as soon as you can”. At this time I am at work and become exceedingly nervous. What could this be about ? This seems pretty urgent! Im nervous to call back. Nevertheless, I call back the next morning upon clocking out. I am floored to find out that someone had taken a picture of me dozing off at work. But lets rewind to the events leading up to this. I was beginning a new journey, another thing to check off of my goals to obtain the future that I want. I began work at another hospital to train to become an ICU (Intensive Care Unit) nurse. This is not something I necessarily want to do , but something to make me as experienced as I can be for my end goal, to be a well rounded nurse in a specialized field. Anywho, I show up as I was told and there is no badge for me or system log-in information provided. As some nurses reading this may know , but others may not…you cannot do anything in a hospital without a badge, An employee can hardly use the bathroom without a badge. In addition to this, the hospital is on a down slope so there is a total of 5 patients in the ICU who aren’t even “ICU” patients. The patients were what I would call stable on my med-surge telemetry unit. They did not require much, so I fought with all my might to keep these eyes open. I failed. Not to make any excuses, I should not have dozed off. I should have made sure I had enough sleep during the day although I am not sure if that would have helped either granted the boredom and overpowering natural body cycle taking over me. My problem and disappointment is with people and people like the person who took the picture who fail to look out for one another. My only wonder is what was the purpose ? Did this persons want me fired ? Did taking a picture of me take less effort than it would have to simply tap me to awaken me? Was my presence there somehow taking money out of her check or food out of her and/or family’s mouth? Had he or she not dozed off at work before as a night nurse ? Would he/she appreciate someone doing this to them? These are all the things running through my head as I am listening to a great woman and nurse in my life tell me to watch the people I work with as tears flow down my now reddened face. I was at first hurt; I was in disbelief that someone I was trying to learn from would make this decision. I did not understand. This is something I would not do to somebody without first helping them. I would have decided on a tap awake before I took a picture considering the circumstances. After this occurrence had set in and I prayed about it, I realized that I needed this and I was being hated on. I had to learn. People will not treat you how you would treat them. Everybody is not a good person. I am now smarter and more cautious because of this.
MY HATER PUT ME ON GAME.
What have your haters done for you ?