Once upon a time, I had ambitions to become a professional writer. This dream was partly inspired by my admiration for Jo March in Little Women. I took a few English classes in high school and soon came to the decision that making my living off of the written word was not the best plan for my future. Obviously that was a good decision, considering that I can't even keep up with this one silly little blog. I'll keep trying though, if I have any readers left after my 6-month silence.
The career path I chose after giving up on writing has kept me pretty busy lately. Shortly after our "real" honeymoon, I started a job at the brand-new Seton Medical Center Harker Heights. This hospital caused a bit of a sensation here in Bell county, since there's not much diversity in healthcare options. My first job as a nurse 5 years ago was at Seton's main location in Austin. I loved it there, so was very excited when they began building a location in Harker Heights, about 25 minutes away from Temple. In nursing school, my senior year preceptorship was in a Level 1 trauma center emergency department in downtown Dayton, Ohio. That first taste of emergency medicine never got out of my system, and I've been wanting to gain some ER experience ever since. However, my desire to travel has kept me doing floor nursing for the past 5 years, alternating between cardiac/telemetry and medical/surgical. When I first interviewed at Seton Harker Heights, I really wanted to get a job in the ER. Since I didn't have any previous experience, they advised me to get a job on med/surg, and then transfer to the ER after the hospital had been up and running for a few months. So that's what I did. I started working on med/surg in June, and by August I was cross-training in the ER and loving it. After several emails back and forth with the ER director and HR department, and months of waiting for a day shift position to open up, I finally got to transfer full-time! I started in January, and it was a great way to begin the new year. I'm the first nurse they've hired who doesn't have previous ER experience, so they're giving me a longer orientation, providing education material to help me learn more about emergency nursing, and setting up days for me to shadow in ICU and Respiratory Therapy. I had been starting to feel a little stagnant doing floor nursing, and it has been so refreshing to learn new things! Here are some highlights of my new job:
* Every day is different. You never know who is going to walk in the door, or be rolled in on a stretcher. It can be slow and quiet for a few hours, and then in a matter of minutes every room in the department is full - including the waiting room. Definitely keeps you on your toes. Boredom? What's that?
* Teamwork. Everyone in the department seems to work really well together, and helps each other out. I can be busy with a more complicated patient for awhile, and then come out of the room to find that a coworker has given meds to another of my patients, or done the paperwork on someone who I needed to discharge. My new coworkers are also very encouraging, and explain things to me whenever I have questions or need help.
* I'm getting lots of practice starting IV's and drawing blood.
* Lunch! One of the nurses starts her shift at 11 AM, and relieves everyone else for their lunch breaks before she takes her own patients. This is a fabulous system. Too many nurses in the world skip meals.
* In general, I've been enjoying working in a smaller hospital. It feels more like a family than a big machine. Walking through the halls, I know or at least recognize almost everyone I pass by - nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists, pharmacy techs, chaplains, phlebotomists... and they recognize me. Actually, they've come to recognize the sound of my shoes. My comfy Dansko clogs are so loud, it's ridiculous. It's kind of embarrassing to walk up to the nurses station and overhear someone say "what is that sound?!" And someone else says, without even turning around to see if it's me, "Oh, it's just Ruth's squeaky shoes." Oh well - I'm too stubborn to buy new shoes. I'm not going through the hassle of breaking in a new pair!
A downside to my new job is all the germs that have attacked my poor little immune system. It's common for a nurse to get sick a lot during her first year in the ER, and apparently I am no exception. I've been sniffling, sneezing, and coughing for pretty much a month straight. I've consumed a ridiculous amount of cough drops and vitamin C, and I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that I'm finally on the mend.
I'll try to be a better blogger after this. No promises, though. I was going to make a new-year resolution to blog at least once a month, but I can't even do that since I missed January. Oh well. Instead, my 2013 resolution is to become the best emergency room nurse that I can be. And to read Les Miserables.
