humanity
The real lives of businessmen, professionals, the everyday man, stay at home parent, healthy lifestyle influencers, and general feel good human stories.
For The Love of Writing
FOR THE LOVE OF WRITING SERIES The writing industry can be an inviting field of work or a competitive world or both. Vocal has a diverse range of genres, writing styles, and writers. Some are fledgling, others have more experience while others have degrees in their field or journalism even. All of us share a love of the craft or art form, as you will. Let's look at the other values of the writing world. To break it down simply: writer, readers, and markets.
By Canuck Scriber Lisa Lachapelle4 years ago in Journal
Both I and My Husband are Now Writers and Authors
It's An Exciting Time For Both Of Us! I started writing on Vocal a good many years back; then I started writing on Medium too. I started as an unconfident writer, but the more I did it, the more progress I made, and I have carried on writing ever since.
By Carol Ann Townend4 years ago in Journal
Using My Blackness For Likeness
I haven't been able to write on Vocal for some time, and I'm noticing some things that are starting to rub me the wrong way. I'm only providing constructive criticism, and I refuse to hold back my thoughts and opinions about the platform. I am welcome to communicate with those in charge to improve black voices.
By teisha leshea4 years ago in Journal
Can a Story Save Your Life?. Top Story - November 2021.
Towards the end of the stage musical Hamilton, in a song following Aaron Burr's killing of the titular character, Aaron Burr expresses regret by saying that, "The world was wide enough for both Hamilton and me."
By Littlewit Philips4 years ago in Journal
Closure
I woke up to a small beam of light shining through the curtains and onto my bed. I rolled over to avoid the light, only to open my eyes as I was awake. I stared at the high, blank, empty white ceiling and I began to feel uneasy. For once, I didn't hear the sound of Hamish cooking in the kitchen. I couldn't smell eggs being perfectly fried on the stove. Hamish would always cook eggs in the breakfast and leave at approximately nine in the morning, leaving me a perfect breakfast each time I woke up. He wasn't a lover, he was a friend. A best friend.
By Samantha Long4 years ago in Journal
NURSING THROUGH A PANDEMIC
We lost half of our census at the assisted living facility where I was working during the first wave of the pandemic back in March of 2020. Many deaths and many people no longer suitable for assisted living and sent to a skilled nursing facility. I blame the company who owns our facility for the loss of so many of our residents. I blame the hospitals for sending our residents back to our facility with a diagnosis of urinary tract infections when they were infected with COVID. Now, since our census is low, the administrator, also the marketer, is out recruiting new residents and not really caring if they are appropriate for assisted living, as long as there is a body in the bed. The acuity is high, and the facility is staffed for assisted living. The majority of the residents belong in a skilled nursing facility. The staff are doing the work of 3 people at times. Morality is low and, at this point, no one cares, and the residents are being neglected. They are being left soiled with urine and feces for hours at a time. Their call bells are being ignored. Medications aren’t being reordered on time, so they go, sometimes days without necessary medications. There is no chain of command regarding management of nursing staff. Everyone just comes to work for a paycheck. Going through the motions of a work day, not really caring if they’re late to work, calling out frequently, defiantly declaring what they’re NOT going to do even if it’s part of their work assignment, talking on their phones while passing out medications or giving care, sleeping on the job, and just being insubordinate, confrontational, and being complete and utter, for lack of a better word, assholes. Administration is useless. You can report how badly the residents are being neglected, or how poorly someone is doing their job, but it falls on deaf ears. I don’t know if it’s the staff’s intimidating and confrontational attitudes about almost EVERYTHING that has the administrator afraid to say anything to them or she just doesn’t care about anything but making a buck by filling beds and saving a buck by cutting back staff. All I know is that people’s loved ones are being promised services that we simply cannot provide. The staff just doesn’t care. I’m doing everything that I’ve learned over the 35 years I’ve been working in nursing but to no avail. I always get arguments and confrontation from uneducated, ignorant people. I have the personality type which, even though I know I’m right, I can be almost bullied into doubting everything I do or say. Doubting my own intelligence. It’s so frustrating that people are so ignorant they don’t even see that I’m intelligent and know my job. They question me, undermine me, and plain old ignore me. Justifiably, though, since administration NEVER backs me up with anything. A resident died because everyone ignored my concerns. Her death was attributed to “old age” but she was completely healthy the day before, as healthy as she could be, but nowhere near death. She choked on food in her sleep after I reported repeatedly that I was finding her asleep with food in her mouth frequently and was afraid she would choke. In addition to finding her dead with food in her mouth, she was ice cold and in rigor mortis, so, even though she was on every 2 hour checks for safety, she had been dead for quite some time. The nursing assistant assigned to check on her obviously didn’t really check on her all night. She was face down in the bed, face was blue from livor mortis. Her tongue was hanging out, lips deep purple, almost black, and nose, pushed to the side in a grotesque manner. She resembled a peat bog mummy I saw on television once. I was horrified. It really stayed with me for weeks. I was told by the director of nursing not to tell anyone how I found her. I knew it was from these lazy, neglectful staff members. I knew it was from being ignored when I expressed a concern just two days before her death about her mouth being filled with food from the 3-11 shift. I wrote it on the 24 hour report for everyone to read and to check that she didn’t fall asleep with food in her mouth. Completely ignored by everyone. So now, there’s a dead resident on my watch. I was devastated. I really liked that resident. She lived in my hometown and we knew the same people. Even distantly connected by marriage. Not one blessed soul at that facility was held accountable. It was swept under the rug, and forgotten.
By Elizabeth Arnold4 years ago in Journal
Top Stories From VSS Members October 2021
Top stories are quite a milestone. The spots are rare, the chances slim and the moment of glory a defining moment in every creators' journey. Haven't got one yet? Don't stress! Until you do, you can always submit your work for peer-review to the Vocal Social Society for the chance at earning a nod from your fellow creators with a Fab 5 award.
By The Vocal Creators Chronicle4 years ago in Journal
