My job description is basically to switch jobs a lot. I'm an RN and work for a registry that has me all over Phoenix some weeks, although the last few months I've been in one location> It's harder than when I at least had an excuse! It's a large correctional facility, and they all work 7a-7p, and either wed-sat or sun -wed. That matters to me because I'm the only one who works Mon-Fri, 3pm to 11pm. So, you guessed it. Most ppl work with the same officers all the time (as in A, B, C, and D  squads) They do that on purpose. The neurotypical (I won't call anyone choosing to work in psych OR a jail normal!) people must have trouble remembering. I work with every single full squad.

I have learned, probably just from exp, that I'm not going to know these ppl's names. I know the name of 1 officer out of the 48 I work with very closely (on my units only). 

It's always been like that in Phx. The county hospital has 9 units with dedicated staff, pool and 17 registries!!!!! There are several inpt facilities besides county that I go to. One of the most challenging is the clinics. One week I went to 5!!!!! One day, one clinic. They are all set up differently with different norms and stupid unspoken rules. I think that maybe I know the medical records staff the best, but not by name. I know- the tall white girl gets mad if you go and get you own charts but the short one at the other clinic expects you to.

BUT- one week I started at a new clinic- busy but close knit in a weird way. They treat the doctors like deities in AZ, unlike Boston where I'm from (different story).

I had a cart for all my charts (which were piled on the floor of course, about 20). A lady came in and asked if she could take my cart. I said yes, and she was like "Oh, yes, of course, I'll take your charts with mine". Meaning that I must have missed something (I was on the floor looking for my ecig), that she wanted to TAKE the cart for her charts. I hadn't assumed she was office staff retrieving them- it's self serve. I just don't know who anyone is, consider us all equal (I can't kiss everyone's butt), and am a polite person (at work). 

Anyway, she ended up laughing, picking up the ecig, tossing it to me, and told me when she put hers on the cart, she'd swing by and see if any of my charts were ready to come off of the floor. Well, you can fit a ton of charts if you are careful and she insisted on pushing the cart to medical records. I think she found me amusing and possibly the total scatterbrain moment may have done it. Turns out she's the medical director, and the office staff, having picked up on my general lost thing, assumed that I thought she was a secretary and told her to bring the charts back.

They laughed until they cried. Meanwhile she was back in my office and we were laughing so hard we had to hold each other up. We never corrected them. I think she was delighted to be in on something. Every day that week she came and got my charts, I did the in charge voice and she called me maam. The clinic staff howled.  She commented about a month later that it was nice to have someone relate to her as a person and not THE person. I told her that my general policy was to treat every person in the clinic even the doctors, as if they were people. 

It gets really weird though when I run into other registry staff. I don't even recognize them if they aren't in the same spot I last saw them.

I even ran into a nurse in Phx that I worked with in Boston for a while. Ran into a patient in Phx that I'd dealt with in San Fran. I am so confused all the time they must really wonder. They all request me by name though. 

I think that when it comes down to it, they realize that I know EVERY severely mentally ill person in the area, from in and outpatient. I know their families, what meds they are on, and will ask them about side effects walking back to my office, without actually looking at the med lists. No one understands how I know them all. One lady cried when I pulled out her favorite candy as she walked in. I had remembered because she had tackled me at the county hospital and stole it- her lithium was too low and she was MANIC. I don't know why I remember the patients, it's technically what I'm supposed to do but socially it would be better thought of it I knew the staff names- no one pays attn to the patients. And it's not the names- these ppl are orbitting planet yoyo and the stuff they say is not boring. I guess that is the flip side….. But at least once I had ppl laughing at me and I knew why!!!!