i've always believed in the fragility of social mechanics. and this is especially poignant in the workplace. it just takes a few minute nuts and bolts like insufficient staffing or overworking the staff, to cock up the machine. in the instance of my ward, a lot of things have been happening lately, mainly due to the introduction of new players in the game. remember my preceptee and the new bunch of staff nurses that just completed their Foundation Program? those are the nuts and bolts that i'm talking about. apparently, my preceptee (or should i now say ex-preceptee? but more on that later), the fat boy with the insecurities and the girlfriend in the same workplace as him, is really headed down the path of condemnation. everyone has taken to calling him 'Fat Boy Slim' after Pangkeng coined the term. it's mean and it's quite horrid actually. but everytime we mention the magic words, Pangkeng and i would start singing 'Right about now, the funk soul brothers'. sometimes we get so immersed in the song that we start popping and locking, to the amusement of the colleagues. how can it be wrong, when it feels so right?

as for FBS, he is fast becoming a CRIC worker. everybody has noticed that he can spend the entire shift, ambling within the vicinity of case notes and not wanting to venture anywhere near the patients. while going through my clinical charts the other day, i kept hearing FBS begging all his juniors for help to do almost everything. 'hey, can you help me disconnect the drip?' 'hey can you help me bring 25/3 to the toilet to pee?' 'hey can you help me clear the dressing set?' all his juniors get extremely irritated with him because he never helps with any of the menial tasks. most of these things could be done himself, but i guess he was literally throwing his weight about. not surprising, one of his juniors got fed up with his incessant requests the other day and finally blew up in front of him. she slammed a clipboard down in front of him and asked him to do it himself. this particular colleague is a Guangzhou girl who seldom lets anything piss her off. it's almost like Jesus raging out when he saw the vendors hawking their wares in the House of God.

since Guangzhou girl was no longer keen to help him, he started asking another colleague for help. this colleague was assigned to room 26, whereas FBS was in room 25. so on top of having to entertain room 26's crap, she had to now settle FBS' bull. it was no surprise therefore that she also blew up like Mt. Krakatoa within the hour. it takes a lot to piss off a nurse, given that they have a high tolerance for bullshit. but it takes the ultimate to piss off TWO nurses in one shift. and apparently, that's what FBS is capable of. thank the heavens therefore, that FBS is no longer under my care. given that FBS is assigned to room 25 and i'm almost always in room 26, the ward sisters have decided to exchange FBS for a much better preceptee. and one that's really easy on the eyes indeed.

my new preceptee is rather pretty, very slim and owns a car. we haven't reached the stage whereby there's the all-inclusive preceptor-preceptee perk of free car rides to the nearest train station. but i think we're getting there. she works hard. she actually has common sense (a very rare trait amongst nurses). she does critical-thinking. she solves her own problems. and she has a boyfriend too. who also has a car. given the let-down that FBS has put me through, i can't help but be grateful and compliment my preceptee on everything that she does.

as for FBS, he's pretty much in a rough patch now. the girlfriend is not exactly having a perfect image of her boyfriend. Pangkeng did the honors of expounding the negative aspects of the boyfriend to her. one of the student nurses from the polytechnics whom she had a short fling with is coming back to the ward for attachment again. one of my colleagues who's very straight-talking but definitely far from being straight, bitched to him just yesterday morning, 'You better pull up your socks okay. Your work sucks. Your attitude sucks even more'. FBS just grabbed his case notes and gave a look that said: noted.

bad day, huh?

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