All Grown Up?

Better late than never... I graduated, studied like a madwoman, took the NCLEX, passed the NCLEX, started work, and here I am. Dani told me she missed my blogs, so, on this lovely Monday that I happen to have off, I thought I'd update.

I gotta tell you, that RN label on my badge feels pretty good. The downside? I'm realizing that working as an RN under a preceptor (as it will be for the next 18 weeks) is preeeeetty similar to being a nursing student. But I have a lot to learn, no doubt. I'm looking forward to getting to know the nurses on my floor better and hoping that they end up being fun people! :)

I worked (well, shadowed) on the floor for an 8-hour shift Saturday to round out my 36 hours from orientation the week before, and I started the new week with a 12-hour shift yesterday. Shadowing for two days is really, really boring, and I'm looking forward to having my log-ins so I can start taking my own patients. But, based on what I've seen so far, here's my impression of the floor:

My badge says oncology, but my nurse and I had more of the "neuro" side of neuro/oncology this weekend. There are lots of head injuries - some with few symptoms that get to go home the next day, and others that have been there for weeks with trachs, PEG tubes, disorientation, the works. We had a lady who had just had a crani for her chiari malformation (which I had to google later), a pneumothorax/chest-tube kinda patient (spillover from the trauma floor), a random cholecystectomy admit from the ER, and one patient with lung cancer and superior vena cava syndrome getting chemo over the next few days. So after my first two days of work I've seen some familiar things, some new things, and some things so new I had to google them. This first year is all about getting experience, and it seems I'll certainly be getting it.

So, I guess despite my aversion for med-surg kinda floors during nursing school, I really do think I'm going to like a lot of things about this floor. On the flipside, it makes me nervous realizing that I most definitely won't have the answers to a lot of the questions the patients and families are going to have or to the situations that come up. I think all of us, as we're starting out, know the kinds of nurses we want to be, and it's rough knowing that it's just going to take a while until we have enough experience to be those great nurses.

...But the paycheck in the meantime will be nice.

In other news, I went for a jog first thing this morning after I slept in til 7:00 (felt like noon after this weekend!) - my first physical activity in weeks and weeks! It's easy to get busy and do nothing but watch TV in the downtime, which is what I've been doing, but this morning reminded me that I'm much more pleasant to be around if I take a little me-time outside.

In other OTHER news, I'm finally reading My Sister's Keeper, and it's fantastic.

Alright, that's it.