Working Written on August 7, 2008, by Jen.
I have to say, I am loving this working two jobs thing. Not only is it nice to have a paycheck every week, but I feel like my brain is totally focused on working and I have been surpised at myself lately because I’m starting to trust myself more and more with my capabilites as a nurse in the PICU. I’m not afraid to walk into work and be faced with an assignment I don’t think I can handle because, well, I guess it’s setting in that I really might end up being really good at this.
When I first started and a patient would get to the point when they needed to be intubated, I always got nervous and shaky and doubted what I knew and I watched everyone else around me doing it like it was second nature and at times joking around, but this past week my patient needed intubated and I was finally able to be involved in an intubation and feel comfortable and have everything ready before the doctors asked for it. A woman that has worked there for 30 years walked out with me and told me that I did very well. That made me feel better than you can possibly imagine.
Home care is a different beast altogether. It’s not the same high paced environment as the PICU, but I also get to know the kids I’m working with better and its more like I’m there so that the parents get a break. I’m still really busy because it’s all paper charting and documentation and I have to clean everything and switch out all the equipment, but it’s a much different kind of environment. And I never really thought about what happened when the kids went home from the hospital. Let me just say, God bless the parents of ventilator dependant, trached, G-tubed kids with central lines and the whole mess because it is a lot of work to just do the day to day things. Just getting them out of bed to use the bathroom is a process, and I can’t even imagine doing something as simple as going to the grocery store. I’m not certain because I only have ever dealt with a tunneled central line in a hospital setting, but I don’t know that these kids can go swimming or how it would be to take a child with a ventilator to the beach or any other family vacation. Seriously, God bless these kids and parents. I’m always amazed at work by them, but seeing how they live at home, wow… The amount of strength and faith families of kids with real illnesses that don’t go away is mind blowing and inspiring, and it kind of does something I can’t explain to my spirit. And some of the kids are so happy. Kids in general amaze me, but adding an illness on top of that and watching how they still maintain their innocence and still are kids who just want to play and learn despite everything they’re dealing with… it just blows my mind.
I just feel like I’m using my time to do something good, and I’m getting paid for it. So, all in all, it’s making me pretty happy.
Read more from the Moments, Things That Please Me, Work category. If you would like to leave a comment, click here: . or stay up to date with this post via RSS
Social Bookmark :
Technorati,
Digg,
de.licio.us,
Yahoo,
Blinkbits,
Blogmarks,
Google,
Magnolia.
Leave a Comment
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.