3 months old

Back to work today after a 1+ week long break.

The ward manager (NO) was in-charge, doing double shift today. SEN L and I were taking teams, HCA K and SEN MY were runners for each team respectively. Was assigned the team with the single rooms (far from the nursing station), with 8 patients in relatively stable condition today. However, there was incessant interruptions to deal with issues from the patients in the other team and the adjoining ward.

I noticed a difference in the attitudes of SEN L and HCA K compared with 1 month ago.

• SEN MY still habitually refuses to do whatever she considers as not her work. As a result, HCA K gets annoyed with her. E.g. SEN MY expects others to cover her duties while she is taking her break, but she refused (or at least drags her feet) when it comes to covering for others while they are having their breaks.
• For the past few weeks before I went on leave, HCA K has been half-joking about SEN L being the NO's favourite, and that she has never been seen SEN L being scolded by the NO. Putting SEN L and HCA K together in a team results in some tension.
• In addition for the couple of weeks before I went on leave, SEN L had been mentioning about learning another skill to change her line. For some reason, SEN L was rather bo-chap today, even had to have me covering some of her work while she has already completed her taped report and taken her dinner (when I had not even had the time for either). Perhaps working in the front team with the NO on her back got to her nerves. I do not know.

What I have observed is that ward interpersonal dynamics are a challenge to manage.