May 3, 2008

Dear Family & Friends,
May has already arrived, and I'm just not sure where April even
went. The days dragged on at times, then flew by without any effort at
all, and I'm not ready for this year to be so far along. When I last
wrote I had gone to work the strike in Oakland, and it's been a whirlwind
since getting back home. My supervisor on the strike called a couple
weeks ago to thank me for working that strike twice so far, ask me to be
sure to be on the next one if possible and offer a letter of reference to
me. Not bad for a week's worth of work...it was a neat type of
experience even though it was very physically demanding and draining.
So, upon arrival back home in Greensboro, I was treated to a week of
really cold, ugly weather, which was a huge change from the delightfully
sunny and mild weather we had in California the week of the strike. That
type of early warm weather is what I miss most about the Southwest, and I
yearn to return to AZ to live in that wonderful desert climate.
Before heading out to CA on the strike, I had three working
opportunities kinda hanging over my head, so to speak, and while there,
the Sullivan group called to see if I'd be able to do an Interim
Management position in Michigan, to which I obviously said yes. Then the
Director of a physician-owned surgery center (small outpatient clinic) in
NC, with whom I had spoken before, and things were kinda in limbo with
them, emailed me to ask if I'd consider coming to them for a 3-month
Interim Management contract to try out the position. Of course I said
I'd be interested in that, and so went home with two opportunities
supposedly very positive and both of them were for "ASAP start"s. Alaska
was still kinda on the back burner, but when I called Jim Wilke, he said
the position had been filled and they were good for the rest of the
summer.
Two weeks into April, neither of the Interim Management positions
had called to set up interviews, but the one in NC had suddenly decided I
needed to take an "assessment" (which is mumbo-jumbo for a psychiatric
personality evaluation), and after I had taken it, I heard nothing
further from them for a week. So, wanting to either get the door
officially closed or find out if it was still open, I emailed the lady to
see what was up. She emailed back to say that due to the outcome of the
"assessment" she was going to accept it's judgement that I wasn't a good
fit for this position for them, in spite of the fact that she really
liked me and thought my resume "is fantastic". After mulling that
response over for an hour or so, with my initial reaction being quite
annoyed at such a thing, I decided to fight back.
I wrote to Dorothy that with all her years of experience, and her
excellent professional judgement (obviously she's been successful in her
profession), it seems odd that she would let a cold, impersonal, on-line
personality profile override her judgement so completely. I asked her
when things had gotten so automated and computerized that a person in her
position had to allow one single interview tool to totally influence a
decision about whom to interview, and if professionals at our level of
experience and maturity couldn't at least be given the courtesy of an
interview in person, then I wished her good luck finding someone for that
position. Then, with a bit of a flippant tone, I asked her if she
thought Hillary Clinton would submit to such an assessment and allow it
to keep her from her goals.
The very next morning she called early to say that I had intrigued
her with my response, that I was right about Hillary, and she had decided
she had to meet me and give me an opportunity to properly interview for
the position. So we set up the date for the interview this week on
Friday, and she arranged a hotel room for me on Thursday so I could have
a little visit time at the beach. Meanwhile, I also emailed the Sullivan
agency about the Michigan position, and the response I got was...we'll
check...nothing since then. That's how this whole consulting thing can
go, feast or famine, multiple opportunities open up, you get excited
about the possibility of an interesting contract, and then you wait and
wait and wait...for the phone call or e-mail saying things are moving
forward. Like this interview at the beach...the bottom line after it was
all over, was that she still had two other interviews to conduct, and
she'll let me know what her decision is two weeks from Friday, which
means I should know by May 16th.
Good for me that my paycheck from the last strike has been able to
stretch far enough to pay bills through the middle of May, but I really
need to be back to work by then if at all possible. Anyway, I decide to
check up on the Alaska thing, and last week he said they were OK, and
then on Tuesday the same hospital in Sitka that was fine, suddenly needs
not one but two RN's for their OR, and ASAP. We interviewed that same
afternoon, and what the recruiter hadn't mentioned was that they require
the OR RN's to also do Recovery/PACU, and since I have absolutely NO
EXPERIENCE in PACU whatsoever, I let them know that I'd be very
uncomfortable having to do recovery of my patients. They, in turn,
decided that they wouldn't be comfortable having me with no PACU
experience, so AK is out of the picture for this summer at least. I'm
still hoping for some consulting work with Sullivan HC, but have had no
word at all from the VP who brought me on board for that Iowa gig.
My trip to the beach this week was delightful. The weather had
turned balmy and warm, with good breezes to keep things from getting too
hot, so when I arrived at the beach it was comfortably warm and the sun
had turned the ocean a deep blue-green near shore, with gentle waves
brushing up onto the sand inviting a swim. After getting my things to my
room on the 5th floor, finding I had a small balcony, I opened up the
door to the balcony and allowed the ocean breezes to air out the room. My
room had a very nice view of the beach and was very nice. After getting
things arranged I walked down to the beach, which was literally just a
sand-dune away, and took a lovely stroll along the beach. The sand and
ocean waves insinuated themselves into my consciousness till I decided to
take off my shoes and socks, and then the stroll became a lovely romp in
the water. By the time I returned to my room, my jeans were wet to my
knees. but I was a very relaxed and happy camper.
As my habit is, I took a drive to find the surgery clinic in the
daylight so that it would be easy to find the next morning for my
interview, and about the time I had found it, I got a call from Dorothy,
who invited me to dinner with her. We ate at a small bistro with a view
of the Bogue Sound, so I got to see the sunset a bit, and had a very
tasty dinner. Since the shrimp is caught fresh daily, I had
flame-grilled jumbo shrimp with lumpy mashed potatoes that had been
lightly broiled to give them a tasty crust, and a salad of spring baby
greens with little grape tomatoes and crisp white cukes, drizzled with a
delicious balsamic vinaigrette. What a delicious dinner it was, and I
savored every bite. Conversation never lagged, and ranged from personal
stuff to professional, and I just decided that this was my chance to
present my case as honestly and frankly as possible, creating an
atmosphere of an informal interview right then while I was relaxed and
comfortable. It was a very enjoyable dinner and I left feeling that we
had done a great deal to favorably impress her with my suitability for
the position.
The next morning at 10 AM, we had the official interview, which
ended up being a progressive thing and quite impromptu with various
members of the staff in management positions. I discovered that the "OR"
staff have an extremely shallow level of OR experience having been given
OJT right there in that surgery center by CST's (surg techs, not even
RN's), and that the current OR Manager has less than 5 years of OR
experience (all of it OJT at CSC). Carteret Surgery Center is
doctor-owned, managed by a lady with a Master's in Finance Bus. Mgmt, and
they only have one RN working on the practice side (the doctor's
offices), three nurses in the surgery center and 5 CST's to do the
scrubbing and run decontam. The doctors not only get their weekends off,
but also an additional day off each week, so they all have extremely
heavily scheduled days when they are working. However, their volume of
surgery cases is very low (for a surgery center), and amounts to 25 cases
per week, which is normally what most surgery centers do each day.
It's a much more complex situation than I was given to understand on
the phone, perhaps manageable for someone of my background, but I'm
giving this a lot of thought and prayer, because now that I've seen what
goes on there, and hearing what is going on from the nurses with whom I
spoke, I'm not entirely convinced I want to take on this challenge. From
all that I've seen in hospitals, and the few outpatient surgery centers
I've been in, I'm fairly certain that this will be a battle of wills
between me and the doctors, because they always want to make more money,
cut corners to save money, and keep skeletal staffing to save money too.
I could go into much more detail, but that might bore most of you.
Suffice it to say that if I don't get the job, I may heave a sigh of
relief, because I'm becoming more certain by the hour that this will be
more of a headache than I've ever encountered. Not that I can't handle
headaches and challenges, but when it's temporary (3 months), you hang in
there because you know the end is in sight around the bend. When it
comes to a permanent position, you know the reality is that those
headaches may continue for many, many months or even years, and is that
what I want to commit myself to? Yes, I enjoy the challenges of my work,
but at my age and stage in my career, is it really wise to accept a job
that I'm sure will put me in a daily battlefield and tug of war with the
doctors for an unknown amount of time into the future, possibly till I
retire?
Apart from the job search, much of my time has been spent helping
my parents with their daily tasks and challenges, running errands,
keeping up with the Spring yard work, and helping Nanny Geiger (my VOB
pastor's mother) with building her a flower garden at her home. That has
been a challenge because Nanny's yard is mostly in the shade, and she
needed a garden that is as low-maintenance as possible to keep from
needing repeat help keeping it looking good. We also had to find a good
variety of shade-loving plants that also bloomed as much as possible
throughout the entire three growing seasons, and to give her as much
color as possible. That first flower garden was completed last week, but
she has a few other projects in mind, so I may get to do some more to
make her yard very colorful and pleasing to her. That project was fun,
and I had a really good time doing it for her.
Well, I guess that catches everyone up for what's been happening
with me since the strike. More when I have something to report on the
job situation or other good news.

Love,
Debbie