be a good nurse

So for the sake of history I should mention that in February I cursed out the charge nurse at the desk in front of the day and nigh shifts beause it was shift change! So I got written up and sent home and “counseled” and all kinds of good stuff.

I was really hating everything (still on the floor in oncology, never got the pacu job) when I randomly went on vacation to FL.

Loved it and rented an apartment. Interviewed at one hospital and they were like, you can start tomorrow on oncology. I asked about working in Endo, they said they’d get back to me on that. I said I’d get back to them on oncology.

So I went ahead with the move even though I didn’t have a job lined up, crazy, right? However I then found a job advertised for a clinical research nurse and I found out yesterday I got the job!

I’m such a shitty nurse because I’m poor at listening to my patient’s breath sounds and checking their pulse ox. My guy did a little worse at a time all day so when I gave him to my friend for the rest of the shift so I could leave early for school she was suprised at how horrible his breathing was. She called and got all kinds of new orders and breathing treatments and took really good care of him and I felt guilty as hell for not having done something sooner.
On the other hand that’s why there’s more than one of us, sometimes it takes a new set of eyes to see something.

I just got ACLS certified, right? So there was a code at work this week and at first I tried to stay out of it because I really didn’t feel like I should be the one working on it, but then I saw how little everyone else knew and put my studying to work. It was an awesome adrenaline rush because we did well enough to stabilize the guy so he could go to ICU.
=)

So I don’t know if I stay at my job like a schmuck until I hear from pacu or if I go out shopping for yet a different job.

There’s an opening on a med unit for a charge nurse which I would need to be trained for, but it would be a new skill to add to my resume and an extra $1 an hour.

Shrug!

So I interviewed with the PACU boss today and will go back Tuesday for a job shadow. The only problem is she said she doesn’t really need anyone until closer to December and I have to not go postal at my present job until then.

So I turned in an application to PACU last week. Not sure if I will hear anything or not but not to worry just yet because the hospital moves very slowly.

I am scheduled to take ACLS later this month because I figured it was better to just go on and pay to take the class so I will have it as an asset and evidence that I am qualified for the PACU than be sitting around waiting for the hospital to eventually send me to class for free… years from now. ;)

I’m just at a point where I don’t care. I’m not angry anymore like in the last point, but I can’t say I care one way or the other about my job. I started in February so if I can make it through August I will have my 6 months and will then be eligible to transfer to another unit. The question is… which other unit?
For some reason recently I am fascinated by the PACU. I’d like to look into what their requirements are.

I hate three 12s in a row. Especially when I just can’t get charted up and have to sit after shift report and chart before I can go home. I didn’t used to be like this and I used to take more patients, so what gives? I hate this new job because you have to do your own accuchecks and more of the vital signs than I am used to. At my last job I took more patients but my nurse assistants did more of the leg work for me. Then yesterday two different shifts a nurse assistant called out which left the remaining ones overworked and angry and less willing to help me with stuff I needed help with like changing patients and taking their set of vital signs. I was so frustrated I couldn’t take anybody else telling me anything else. I could quit in a heartbeat except that I’m such a quitter I need to stay at a job for a while so I don’t look like such a flake. Argh! What if I am a flake? I think about things like trying to drop down to part time or switching to the night shift so it would be quieter. I think charting would be easier on nights. But I kind of hate nights because it screws up your real life.

I am stressing so bad I left the boss voicemail and email and asked for a few days off in a row so I can take a break and try to regroup but I haven’t heard back from her. I haven’t heard back so I don’t know what that means.

Phew.

been taking four patients. which is less than at my old job. but i still find a way to drown. maybe just knowing i don’t have two more people to go see lets me waste extra time with these people. who knows? The patients here are much more serious and depressed. They take a lot of TLC.

Took 4 patients the other day. But having trouble getting organized/oriented to the unit. Oh well.