girl in greenwood

First of all, I want to say hi to rosebuttons and Z* and SN Jack. Thanks for your comments and ideas! Especially about preschool waiting lists... I'm sure every decent preschool in Seattle is already booked for the next 3 years. Also, Z*, you are welcome to write a book on my blog anytime you want. I think it's so cool that we're on this same nursing journey.

I had a good series of conversations with my coworker nurses at work on Saturday. They all urged me to take a new grad job at a hospital in order to establish a good experience base and take advantage of the extra coddling that new grads receive during residency. I said, "but what about if I get pregnant and can't finish a full year of work?" They laughed at me... and said that it happens all the time, and I would most likely be welcomed back or transitioned to another position (like the float pool? or a per diem position?). So. That's what I will try to do. I'm applying to several different hospitals' residency programs for med-surg type jobs, and I'll just have to see what happens.

As for school, I went with one other classmate today to do our "self-orientation" at the long-term care facility where we are doing our management clinical starting next week. What does that mean? We will be there Monday & Tuesday mornings with first-quarter students, supervising & mentoring them along with one of the first-quarter instructors. Then Wednesdays and Thursdays, we'll do an entire shift independently... and I believe it will be as though we are additional supervisory nurses. We're not replacing or shadowing a nurse on the shift. We're supposed to be assessing residents, directing resident care by LPNs and CNAs, passing meds to a whole set of residents twice, performing treatments like wound care... and doing a whole lot of paperwork. I think the idea is to immerse us in the world of an RN in long-term care.

I'm feeling surprisingly not anxious about this clinical. The staff made us feel very welcome today, and I'm looking forward to mentoring the new kids in the program. It makes me realize that I'm come a really long way in a really short time. That's cool.

Labels: nursing school