TurboNurse

So much has happened since I've written here. I'm done with level II nursing and finished second (or third) in my class. Not exactly sure but I know I finished pretty high up there. I don't think I got an A but I don't really want to take the time to log in to find out. When I'm on break from school, I'm really on break and refuse to crack a book unless it's for work (whichis a different story).

Life has been quite the whirlwind lately. I applied for a nurse extern position at UNMH and got hired on in July but just worked my first real shift yesterday. There is a lot of training involved when you get hired on and most of it conflicted with school and I had already missed more school than I wanted to (I really dont' like to miss any at all) so I refused to miss any more until it was over. I finished training on Wednesday and then did my first shift yesterday in 7S.

7S is a cardiac sac unit. I didn't mind it too much at all. I saw a few people from the old job there so that was nice. It eased my nerves a bit. It's always hard being the new kid of the block because you really have to cross your I's and dot your T's. Ha!

I basically shadowed an RN yesterday and did a lot of passing meds and learning the policies and proceedures and equipment. My brain was so full by the end of the day that I coudln't even think anymore. There's so much to learn yet I feel like I don't know a thing! From what everyone says, this is normal but even still, the feeling sucks.

It was wierd because I know I know what I'm doing but as soon as I got out of my comfort zone and into a new place, it seemed like everything I learned from clinicals and class and previous experience just took a holiday. I don't like being uncomfortable but I know that if I don't put myself into uncomfortable positions, I'll never grow so it's a good bad feeling if that makes sense.

So to start my day yesterday, I got a speeding ticket on the way to work. Luckily I had left the house way early (I'm used to being required to be at the hospital 30 minutes early for school) so I was only 10 minutes late. It's not the way to start off at this place. I was almost wondering if this was God's way of saying this isn't supposed to work out but who knows. The rest of the day turned out so well so who knows. Only time will tell.

I got to see my first code at the new place yesterday too. It was just like any other code I've ever seen except there were a TON of people in the room! At the other/old job, the only people in the room when a code was happening was those that were doing something. At this place, since it's a teaching hospital, there were a bunch of us in there just watching. There had to be at least 20-25 people in there! What was nice is that the pt survived. That doesn't happen very often at all.

So after all of that yesterday I went for a swim after work. It felt so good I could have swam for another hour or so but I didn't because I knew I had to get home.

Last Friday my family came in from Iowa and Illinois. For the first time in my life I got to really know my sister and spend time with her. She also brought her two daughters (my nieces). I had such a blast getting to know her. It was really neat learning how much we really do have in common. I'm sure there's more to come as we stay in touch.

My mom, aunt, cousin, sister, 2 nices, and my grandma all got our pictures taken together at JC Penny's and they turned out so good! I thought it would be a good idea to do something like that. My grandma has been having some problems since her stroke and my mom is not in good health either so having these pictures taken was really special.

I got injured at the end of June begining of July so I had to take some time off running but I'm back now. My plan is that I'm going to do run/walk intervals for the rest of the season to make sure I don't get injured again and then go from there. I'd like to do the P.F. Chang's half marathon in Arizona in January but we'll see. That's just an idea I'm kicking around. I am going to do Denver in October though. I've never been to Denver so I'm really looking forward to that.

I also have two more triathlons on the board. I originally was going to do the Chili Harvest Tri in Socorro but because of my injury, I didn't make it. So now I'm planing on doing the Patriot Day Tri in September and then the Jingle Bell Tri in December. The Jingle Bell Tri will be just for fun. I've been doing fairly well at getting my swim and bike workouts in but I've only been hitting them about once a week since running is my priority right now. I'm trying to run 4 days a week and swim and bike on the other two, leaving myself one rest day. I'm trying not to double up my workouts right now because of the injury and because of my schedule. I just have to do what I can reasonably fit in and not kill myself since school takes up so much time. I don't want to be exhausted.