I finally got around to doing my taxes overnight, and they are now in the hands of the US Postal Service. And I won't have to prostitute myself to pay off my taxes (all should breathe a deep sigh of relief, as I shall do now.... B.. R.. E.. A.. T.. H.. E.. ) Actually, my income was up quite a bit this year (because I am surely working myself to death or mental collapse) and yet my federal tax is pretty much the same as last year, and I am getting about four times the amount back from the state of Arizona. Pretty sweet. And I didn't have to do anything illegal (like claim our kitties as children) to get it.
Check out atariboy, who got served with a notice from Redstation (ISP) for a blog entry they want retracted/deleted/obliterated. I found him on Digg, and I've been salivating over his two-monitor setup for the past several weeks. Anyway, I am pretty sure I will someday find some nasty notice from Pr e ss G a n e y because of all the shit I've written here about their patient satisfaction survey (Insert Soapbox Text Here: It isn't patient satisfaction that you have to worry about, it's nursing recruitment, nursing education, and nursing RETENTION that will decide how your last 30 days of life will go... I'll bet ya, I'll just bet ya...) I just have to wonder about who is running their PR department, and why they are still working for Redstation after all of these inbound links about them.
I am in the thick of our annual performance evaluations. I have about 40 to complete. It's my least favorite part of the year, seconded only by sorting out the holiday schedule. I'd rather put down 40 nasogastric tubes, or 40 foleys (on folks with prostates the size of lemons). I just am totally dreading it, although I have never had anyone freak out over my evals. The point is this: everyone brings something positive to the table, my job is to find it, even if I have to mention half a dozen bad things they bring to the table.
So did anyone else catch that HNN story about that little boy that's a bull fighter? They were playing clips of him messing around with a little bull (not sure if it was a young bull, or if it was some smaller breed). When I watch adult bull fighters, I always shamelessly root for the bull. I just love it when those guys get gored, and then sent flying over the barriers. And when they have the running of the bulls, I am on my feet, yelling "Go Bulls, Gore Them Sons of Bitches!!" at the top of my lungs. But it was a tough call trying to figure out if I was rooting for the little bull, or the little boy. Then they got to the part where the kid was stabbing the bull with those sticks, and I found myself once again on my feet, hoping that bull would gore that little kid's parents. The fact that HNN was playing it up as a "cute factor" just sickens me.
OK, back to work tonight... looking for 40 NG's or 40 foleys...
While I am aware of no studies to confirm this suspicion, I am convinced that nurse satisfaction has a far greater impact on any given hospital's bottom line than patient satisfaction.
Like you, eric, I often find myself rooting for the bull, but I stop short at rooting for the shark in "Jaws." That would be almost as bad as cheering for the Yankees.
Posted by: shrimplate | April 18, 2006 at 11:05 AM
I love tax day...
As usual, I have my federal worked out pretty well, and got some back, but not very much.. (I'd rather have it to spend all year). I just can't get the dang state levels right. I owed the dang state almost $300 this year, so it got mailed late this afternoon...
My review should be interesting this year, with all of the director changes (we lost another one, if you didn't hear)... That combined with my leaving for the ED this week, should combine for some unusual "evaluating"
Posted by: Disappearingjohn | April 18, 2006 at 03:50 AM