Dec 21 2008
RN for life?
Once again, I’d like to try to pick up from where I left off in October. I hope at least a few readers are checking in periodically. Since my last entry:
- I have renewed optimism.
- I finished the fall quarter of the UCSF Master’s of Nursing program. I’m pursuing my Master’s part-time over three years (instead of two years full-time). I’m starting with two classes per quarter in the first year and perhaps three or four classes in the second and third years.
- I cut back on my hours at the community clinic to one day a week so that I could start a part-time acute care job at a hospital. I’m a Staff Nurse I, which indicates less than six months experience. Being a new nurse is a highly coveted role that one thinks back on with warm, fuzzy memories!
All nurses will hear only sarcasm from the last sentence.
Being a new nurse, especially in an acute care setting, has been a nail-biting adventure. Adjusting to the hospital, my floor, my co-workers, and learning how to handle a full patient load has been crazy. No day is the same. I go in with eyes wide open, adrenaline pumping, and leave either relieved, exhausted, distraught or all of the above.
To center myself each morning before work, I light incense, meditate, and give myself pep talks while walking to work. Each evening after work, I light incense, lie on the floor in the dark, and wait for my head to decongest and legs to unswell.
Next week I’ll be crossing a new threshold: I just completed my 8-week precepted orientation at the hospital and will be on my own starting Tuesday!
<Insert excited, nervous, and disbelieving face here.>
Due to the overwhelming experiences of being a new nurse, my entries here will be focused on … being a new nurse. However, I’m still in school, so I’m more than happy to answer anybody’s questions about the MEPN or Master’s program.
Happy holidays.
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