Job Change

Interview last week went well, and yesterday they offered me the job! It would be starting on the regular telemetry (heart-monitoring) unit and then once the unit moves into the newly built expansion, which sounds like it’ll be amazing, it will join with the post-coronary care unit. I have the weekend to decide on if I want the job, but after talking more with John and with family, and praying about it, I think I’m going to go for it.

Main reasons are: the hours will be consistently night shift (I know, not the best, but at least it’s not switching back and forth), and also it will be on one unit instead of going to a new unit every day. As much as it’s been great to go to different units at United, I don’t think right now it is the best option for me. Everything is already so new and a little scary, so to constantly be changing what type of patients and the unit I’m on (all so different!) is a little overwhelming for being a new nurse. Definitely has made me grow a lot in my profession, which is good, but I’m looking forward to having one unit to really excel in.

Another reason, it will pay a little more, which will help with John going back to school full time. We have enough debt and loans to pay off already, so with this job we’ll probably not have to take on any more loans while John’s in school.

So, I have to let my manager know on Monday, which I’m dreading doing because she’s such a great manager. And then I’ll start working at Regions come the beginning of January!

New Grad Orientation

Today marked the beginning of week five out of eight weeks of my new graduate orientation as a RN at the hospital. It’s been a whirlwind of experiences, emotions, mistakes, triumphs, etc. I was actually started on a surgical care center instead of a medicine unit. They tend to start new grads on medicine, but since I’ll be a float nurse eventually, I guess they figured they could start me on surgical too since I would be going there sooner or later. This didn’t upset me one bit since during my last semester of school I was on an orthopedic unit twice a week and most of those patients were post-surgical. Holy total knees and total hips! But not anymore actually.

Now I take care of all those people who have hysterectomies, bowel resections, hernia repairs, prostate resections, cystectomy’s (bladder removal), cholecystectomy’s (gall bladder removal), appendectomy’s, and then the occasional medicine patient (kidney infection, UTIs, DVTs (deep vein thrombosis))… etc. Anyway, I enjoy using all those bigs words because I’m finally getting accustomed to them and it’s fun! But I have learned SO much over the past month that my mind feels like it’s always two weeks behind where my body is.  Strange feeling that apparently doesn’t really ever go away as a nurse. We’ll see about that. I also got to observe/help-out in the OR and the ER for a day each last week. The OR was boring… lots of standing around (and counting gauze sponges and utensils as they get thrown on the floor), and the ER was not as exciting as I thought it would be (lots of people coming in pretending to be in pain so they could get their narcotics… sorry, not here!). 

The frustrating part about orientation has been how I’ve had four different preceptors so far. And tomorrow I get another! The preceptor is kinda like my guardian nurse who is there to help and answer questions. Sounds great, and it is very very necessary and helpful (I ask a question about every 6 minutes probably), but it’s difficult when each nurse has a very different style and way of nursing. This can be awesome when you can pick up little tips on various things, but it is so draining to try and figure out how to work with four different experienced nurses. Like today I was with a nurse I’d never been with before. She seriously watched me do about 75% of all I did. Even if it was just hanging a new IV bag of fluid. Something I feel very comfortable doing suddenly became very difficult because I knew I was being watched over my shoulder. I tried telling her that it was more difficult to do simple things with her watching me, but she looked at me with that “So if I’m not watching you, can you actually do this safely?” kinda look. Ugh. Oh well, it’s a stage of my career that I just have to get through. In 2-3 wks I believe they’ll be setting me free to work on my own on this unit, and then I think after 8 wks of that I’ll head off to a medicine unit. Then after a couple months there, another unit (maybe oncology or ortho or neuro). 

And I am SO excited to get to start my 0.8 FTE schedule! They have me working 40hrs/wk, Monday through Friday on day shift right now and it’s been a little overwhelming, especially just starting out. I think in 2 wks I will only work 32 hrs/wk, every other weekend. I also start working night shifts 40% of the time. The other 60% will be days. Should be interesting… but I am excited! 

Random… My conclusions from today: 1)  50% of a nurse’s job is simply keeping all the tubes, lines, catheters, and drains all situated and connected. 2) I love that I get to wear comfy scrubs and tennis shoes every day!

Yowza

Summer never seems to be that “vacation” that I always think it will be. No surprise since I started working full-time just over a month ago. We have been so busy (or just plain tired) that I really have been slacking on many things, not just this little blog. I think I’ve come to be okay with the fact that I’ll never be an avid blogger. I love to READ blogs, but I’m just not a good writer and blogging is frustrating to me because I can’t write out my thoughts well. Perhaps it just takes practice like everything else, but since I’ve been blogging since I was 14 and I still have nothing to show for it, I guess I’ve failed that cliche. 

But, good news! John and I finally officially have internet at our apartment! As of last night we are able connect to the outside world 24/7 365. Good and bad thing, but overall I’m glad and excited. The cable guy also decided to be extra nice and bless us with free cable! He said that their company ran out of blocks for our cable connection, so we’ll just get cable for free. Woo! Now that’s something I’m not as excited about because TV is so much of a distraction for me and for John too. I really have enjoyed the quietness of a home without any background noise of the TV. That’s how our house was all the time growing up, so although it’s a little comforting to have it again, I hope we can limit our consumption. There’s almost always something better to do with your time than watch TV, and it just breeds bad things… laziness, marital problems, and most importantly, it steals time away from prayer and reading the Word. I’ve definitely been struggling with that since I started working (be praying for me in that respect). Adjusting to working full-time has been difficult, but I like it a whole lot more than being in school, that’s for sure! At least you have some time “off” whereas in school it feels like you’re never free. 

So as I say in every other post, I hope to keep this sucker updated more often, possibly even with pictures here and there. Now don’t hide your excitement!

Sick, or just Sick-er?

I think I’ve been off and on sick for the past month or so, and honestly am getting real sick of it (sorry for the horrible pun). I think I’ve had to call into work (or class/clinicals) 3-4 times since January; not a very good reflection of my work ethic, but what can you do when you keep getting sick? Yesterday, for example, 100% healthy (to my knowledge), then today, woke up with a very sore throat and upset stomach. Grrrr bugs! I also finally had to call the quits with my nursing home job because of 1) getting sick so often, 2) need to focus that time on school, 3) we’ll be moving out of town soon, and 4) my husband has had no clean socks for about a week due to my lack of time to do laundry! I’m sure the last reason is negotiable… but it just proves my point. Plus, working at a nursing home is quite the stressor and wasn’t helping me recoup over the weekend from school. So, now that phase of working is done… it was tough, but I’m glad to have had the experience of doing the dirty work as a nursing assistant; no doubt it will help me be a better nurse in a few months! yikes!