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! :)