I'm like an adult and stuff...

I officially have an apartment. My very first one! I'm kinda sorta majorly pumped about it. Right now my drive to work is about 50 minutes. This is absolute torture when you're working 7a-7p and you're not a morning person. I'm pretty much a zombie in the mornings. But anyway, my new apartment is only 5 minutes from the hospital! Yay!

Here's the thing about getting an apartment though, down payments are the devil! Not only is there one for the actual apartment, but then you have water, electricity, etc. I spent more money than I care to discuss. However, I do feel like I should be singing, "all the women who independent THROW YOUR HANDS UP AT ME!" I'm really looking forward to this stage of my life. Not the moving process though. =/ 

I did find out one of my neighbors happens to be an OB doctor on my floor! He's super sweet and his wife is baking me an apple pie as a housewarming gift! How adorable is that?!? My other neighbor is a nurse I work with that I LOVE! 

Here's another thing for all you nursing students, 6-8 hour clinicals go by SO MUCH SLOWER than 12 hour shifts when you're an official RN. Unless we have no patients, work flies by. So since I worked tonight and the next two days, please pray for a constant stream of preggo ladies! 

Short post I know, I promise a better one next time!

The Good, The Bad and the... oh my God what the hell is that?!?

First of all let me say that I know everyone is unique and special in their own way. Okay, now also let me say that there is no reason anyone's vagina should look like some of the ones I saw yesterday. It was obviously national "Gross Vagina for Whitney" day, because if it was nasty and in a 20 mile radius I examined it. Needless to say that when I got home yesterday I scrubbed my entire body for 30 mins straight and then went to bed. This is why you didn't get a post from me.

Anyway, besides the obvious, yesterday was a rough day for me for a few other reasons. It is really hard to keep excellent bedside manner when you want to slug the person you're providing care for. Not only was this one girl "Jane" positive for a drug screen, she was a total bitch as well. I was already perturbed because of the drugs, but I was doing my best to fake it and then she started the flinching and moaning. She flinched and moaned with her IV when I just put my hands on her, NO NEEDLES INVOLVED YET! She also flinched and moaned with the catheter when I was just cleaning her with cotton swabs. It was hard for me to keep my cool but I did and I tried to treat her as well as every other patient I had. But let me tell ya, it was rough.

Then we had decided a c-section an hour before change of shift. I had to stay 40 minutes over, no big deal. The good thing was that this was my 2nd time as circulating nurse in the OR and things went swimmingly. :-)

Today was slooooooooow. As in, no patients on the floor slow. But I practiced scrubbing and donning my surgical gown and gloves about 47294 times. So hopefully, I'll get to assist the next c-section. That looks super fun, with the blood and pulling on the abdominal tissue! I'm pumped! I'll keep you updated. Night guys!

I'm Late, I'm Late!

But it's better late than never, right?

So I was a little exhausted Wednesday, and pretty much comatose yesterday. =/ Sorry! But the good news is I didn't harm or kill a mother or baby! Yay! Wednesday was slow but still crazy. Being a new nurse is hard, but being a new specialty nurse is ridiculous. There's so much to learn, and I'm not talking about the stuff you learn in school. The computer system at my hospital is ridiculous. You chart some things on one system, and other things on a different system. Neither one is easily navigated either.

Then there's the whole doctor situation. Who wants you to call for what situations, and who never wants you to call unless it's necessary. Who is nice, who is super strict, and who's a bitch... This carries over to the anesthesiologists, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, etc. I attempted to learn all the names for the surgical instruments, and although I got it after about an hour, it's still not second nature like it should be. You have your hemostats and Kelley's, whose only difference is about an inch in size, and you have your Allis and Kockers (pronounced Coke-ers, and of course I called them COCK-ers all day), and then you have Penningtons and Bronks. This is just some of the clamps, let alone all the scissors and tweezers you have. Sheesh.

Thursday I actually got to be the circulating nurse during c-sections. That's just gonna take practice, to anticipate what the doctor needs or where you need to be. I did get to play with the placenta though, and the doctor was amazing when it came to taking the time to teach me things. Crazy enough, my first ever c-section patient happened to be an old school friend of mine who had moved away in middle school. It was really cool to share that experience with her and it definitely cemented that OB is where I wanna be. A few more births thrown in, LOTS of IVs and Foley's, and even my first few vaginal exams thrown in pretty much sums up the last two days. Let my clarify that I was the one doing the vaginal exams, not having them done to me. ;) Basically, I've spent hours staring at vaginas as if they're the most fascinating things in the world. Really though, with the things that they do, they pretty much are. And the blood associated with births... I love it!

AND FINALLY, I got my very first paycheck yesterday! It was only at my base rate (no shift differential), only for about 26 hours (because of my orientation classes), and almost 100 dollars in taxes and 401(k) taken out, but still! It's pretty nice to have my first big girl paycheck. I literally have a list on my phone for things I want to buy!

Later guys!

One Week Down

Yep, that's my special, super duper, awesome and all powerful ID badge...

Well I'm officially done with my first week! All of the orientation paperwork is done, thank goodness! I'm pretty sure if I had to sign my name and the date one more time I would have lost it. Or developed carpal tunnel and I'm pretty sure I don't qualify for worker's comp until after my first 90 days. =[ Anyway, all of the stuff was boring but my hospital really tried to make the last 4 days as bearable as possible. I'm sure every hospital will make you do this, but at least you're getting paid for having your eyes gloss over and drool slip out the side of your mouth.

Today was like the rest, except I had a fetal monitoring class for 2 hours. I was intimidated going into it, but after a little bit I discovered it was everything I already knew. Actually, I felt like a real nurse for the first time because I knew exactly what the doctors were talking about and anticipated some of their responses. :) I also got my first experience of a nurse-doctor 'misunderstanding" at this hospital. Things got a little heated, and I was left exchanging "awkwarddddd..." faces with the other new girl. It was resolved relatively easily though.

I start on the unit Wednesday, and the nice thing is my director gave me everyday off until then so I can be on the right rotation! That's right, 5 whole days of being utterly useless is in my immediate future. I met my preceptor today as well and she's about as nice as I could have imagined! So excited to work with her and from what everyone has said she's a fantastic nurse! If there's one piece of advice I can give you it's to get a great preceptor. That applies to nursing students as well as baby nurses. I was blessed to have the best NICU preceptor you could possibly imagine in school and now it looks like my new one is going to be awesome as well. If you don't have a good preceptor, then let your director (or instructor) know! They can switch you around if you honestly feel you're not getting a good experience. Your preceptor is setting the tone for you and it's really important that you start off with a good experience! Be your own advocate as well as your patients'!

I'll be spending the next 5 days doing nothing, so I'll update y'all Wednesday after my first day! Have a good weekend! :)

First Day!

Oops! I almost forgot...

So... My first day started off great! Someone surprised me with breakfast in bed! 😃 I spent the night with my friend, because he lives 45 mins closer to the hospital than I do. Then I go downstairs this morning to discover that my curling iron and my straightener are both at my house, and I have NOTHING to fix my hair with. PANIC! Boys will not understand the severity of this, but I know the girls will. It's your first day at a new job, you want to look your best. Also, my badge photo was to be taken today and how can I have bad hair on the thing that will be hanging from my scrubs for all of eternity? Besides that, I had photo ideas of myself in my scrubs, with my new badge, etc. to post on Facebook. Somehow, I managed to make my hair look somewhat presentable and made it on time!

Here's what they don't teach you in nursing school: how to make life decisions about 401(k)s, insurance, and tax deductibles. I fully believe there should be a class about this because I was definitely unprepared for the onslaught of decisions and paperwork I had to do today. I wish I could tell you something really exciting happened, but I can't. I spent 8 hours today filling out forms and signing my life away. The next three days are all apparently worse. :( Pray for me...

Big Girl Job

Hey y'all! 

This is my very first blog and I'm hoping that I keep up with it, but fair warning now I make no promises. ;) 

I graduated nursing school with my BSN in May, passed my NCLEX in June, and I start my very first job this coming Monday on the OB unit and I'm FREAKING out! First off, for all of you who are still nursing students or are considering becoming a nurse, let me be honest with you. When you hear people say it's a piece of cake to get a job right out of college, those people are stupid and you should throw rocks at them. Yes, I'm sure it's tons easier to get a job as a new grad nurse than a lot of other professions, but let me be clear when I say that it's still not easy. My advice now is to get a job as a tech somewhere to get your foot in, or start putting in applications months in advance of your set graduation date. 

Now that I've scared those even newbier than myself, let me also say that I'm feeling extremely blessed for my job. My heart has always laid in OB, and especially the NICU once I done my preceptorship there, but I knew that getting a job in this unit straight out of school is almost impossible. However, thanks to a great friend who talked me up a lot more than I'm sure I deserved, I'm lucky enough to start in OB on Monday! =D

I started this blog because everyone says your first year of nursing is the toughest and you quickly figure out that there are tons still that you don't know. I hope that by writing about my new nurse experience maybe I can help in any way at all other new nurses. Or possibly just bring others amusement at my trials and tribulations! Have a good weekend and I will update y'all on Monday about my very first day!