- There's never a stupid question! I know, I know. People say this all the time. But honestly, I mean it! I've asked a ridiculous amount of questions during my nursing career so far, and there's no way I'll know everything...so they're just gonna keep coming. When you have someone's life in your hands, this whole stupid question thing makes sense. Sure, a seasoned nurse might know something like the back of their hand, but I'm brand new and I don't. And even down the road, there will definitely be things I need to ask about. I'd rather ask and potentially look like a fool than risk hurting one of my patients. And, not that I really had a fear of asking people questions before, but I totally don't now.
- Some days will be excellent, and some days you'll want to rip your hair out. I think this speaks for life in general, but it definitely applies to the nursing world. Throughout my orientation, I had days that were nearly perfect. All of my patients were cooperative and pleasant, things happened on time throughout the day, and I was able to contact doctors (who were nice to me) with no issues at all. Then, maybe even the next day, everything goes to hell. My patient who was fully oriented in the morning suddenly becomes confused. A doctor goes off on me for paging him twice when he hadn't responded to a serious issue in almost an hour. My old man's blood pressure is through the roof and the docs aren't doing anything about it. My phone is going off every two minutes and I literally cannot get anything done. Days like the latter happen, and sometimes they occur much more frequently than I would like. But hey, that's what comes with the territory, and dealing with that stress is going to help me in the long run no matter where my life takes me!
- Just because nurses have a shortened work week does not mean that we have it easy. During my orientation, I was working three 12 hour shifts per week. Now, I'm scheduled as a 40 hour per weeker, so I do two 12s and two 8s. To a lot of people, this sounds awesome (myself included). But I'd just like to point out that it's not easy. Let me give you a little reference here. On the days that you work a 12 hour shift, you basically go to work, come home and eat, relax for a tiny bit, and then go to sleep. There's no time for fun, and there's a lot of catch up you have to do on your days off. If I do two or three shifts in a row, I usually end up sleeping in on my off day just because I need to catch up. Now, weeks when you're on days are good. But then after two weeks of that, you get switched to nights. So you're all messed up that first week because you're not used to the night schedule yet. It's hard to get good rest during the day because it's bright and noisy out, everyone else you know is not on your wacky schedule, and you end up waking up every hour or so. On your second week of nights, you're sort of in the swing of things, but you're still on the sleepy side since you haven't been sleeping well. That week ends, and then you're flopped back to days for two weeks. The vicious cycle stays on repeat. So, even if we work three or four days a week, it all evens out. Trust me. (Though, I must say, this is not me complaining. Just helping people understand. I love my job!)
- It's so easy to bond with a fellow nurse. When you work in a profession where it's not unheard of to get shit on, you gotta stick together. If you don't have a job in healthcare, you'd probably be grossed out by the routine type of thing nurses talk about over their lunch break. During my work as a nurse, and even more so as a nurse's aide, I've been peed on, pooped on, vomited on, sneezed on, and bled on. It's gross, but you get over it because it's part of your job. And at least for me, the best way to get over something is to laugh about how ridiculous the situation is. I'm sure most professions could connect in ways like this. When someone's ringing their call bell because it's an "emergency", and in all reality they just got orange juice instead of grape with their breakfast tray, you just have to put on a smile and deal with it. And so, it's easy to connect with fellow healthcare workers as we all have ridiculous, exciting, or funny stories to share and tell.
- I love my job. I was pretty certain I'd love my job going into my college career, and I became even more sure that I would once I started clinicals and working as an aide. But, since I've truly began my work as a nurse, I can now say that I officially love my job. Every day that I work, I affect someone's life. Of course, what I do isn't always the most amazing thing - in fact, it's usually something small that makes someone's day. Acting in a persistent manner with the doctors in order to get a patient's pain under control can make a huge difference. Offering a smile and a few jokes just to cheer someone up can really be a big deal. And talking to a family member and taking the time to explain something is usually very appreciated. I'm not changing the world here, and I may not even be changing lives. But I feel like I'm making a difference and doing something important with my life. I love taking care of my patients, I love doing my very best to get them better (or at least keep them comfortable), and I love learning new things every single day. Ultimately, I love being a nurse.
Later gators,
Liz :)
