Happy Chanukah!

Not to forget all of those of the Jewish faith, Happy Chanukah!

And here is a sweet thank you note to all of those who celebrate

in the traditions of the season!

Courtesy of HappyPlace

Merry Christmas

  I know with the holidays work seems to drag even worse for most people, but I love being at work around the holidays. I don't know why but in my experience the holidays mean more to people in the hospital. Perhaps it's because whatever landed them there is severe enough to make them think about what is important to them, and some may be faced with the reality that they may not see another Christmas, or whatever they celebrate at this time of the year.  

  I think the staff tends to sense it as well, I rarely see the doctors and the nurses who get "stuck" working the Christmas shifts complaining, instead they smile try to give what comfort they can to their patients.  

  So to all of the nurses, doctors, techs and staff who have sacrificed their Christmas so that someone may have one more. 

Thank You!

and

ICU Survivor Week 2

  Sorry for the layoff folks, things have been a little crazy between trying to get a four day orientation done, enrolling into an ICU "bridge' course which is designed to teach me all I need to know about being an ICU nurse in 4 weeks and getting time on the floor. 
  Today I had a great day on the floor, I managed a patient who would walk out of her room to the nurses station and announce loudly that she was going to,


"Yank out this F@*&ing catheter right here and now if you don't take it out now!"


I assured her that was the lasting thing she wanted to do, luckily the doc was there and gave me the ok to take it out. It did take some talking to get her back in the room to do that though.  By the end of the day though we were BFF's, just in time to transfer her up to the floor.


I also had the opportunity to assist with a bedside placement of a hemodialysis catheter. The doc who did the proceedure apparently had a sense of humor.


"Nurse, are there any PVC's?"  


The doc gestures towards the table. The newbie begins scanning the table for a PVC (what the hell is that anyway?)


Laughter,


"Uhh I mean on the monitor, y'know PVC...in the heart?"


Duh, and cardio was my best subject in nursing school!

Seriously,
how many of you parents have wanted to do this?

Source: damnlol.com via Vivienne on Pinterest

Survived!

  Thank you for all your support! I survived my first day in the ICU with an awesome preceptor. It was a crazy day, we didn't get our charting started until the day was nearly half done. We spent an hour in CT scan  with a 300 + lb patient. The CT tech looked at us like we were nuts when we brought her in, and wasn't sure if she would fit in the scanner. After calling in some muscle (we have the best security guys!) to help move her on to the the scanner, we hop into the control room and begin scanning. The patient begins hollering at us from the machine, 


  "Let me out! I'm hungry, I want to eat!"


  "Ma'am that's what landed you here" mutters the tech.

Doubts

  Ever get that gnawing feeling in the back of the mind, the one that screams 


"What the heck are you doing?!"


 Yeah, got that right now.  Doubts are creeping in, I'm wondering if this was a big mistake, if they're going to realize it was a big mistake. Am I really cut out for this? What was I thinking, thinking that I could do this?


 First shift in the ICU this morning, time to prove myself wrong and shut up the little voices.

Update!

  Oh my gosh how time flies when you are having fun! Or something like that. If you are wondering what the heck happened to me here is the abbreviated version, if you don't care and want to look at more funny pictures I'm fresh out so find someone to send them in to me!


  Well kiddo's here's the scoop.  Local hospital called me back just when I had given up all hope of hearing from them and offered this newbie a position in the ICU. Yep, never worked actue care in my life but I somehow landed an ICU position. Boy I can see some classmates faces turning green, hee hee! Sorry had to gloat abit there! 


  Now comes the fun part, I am Canadian, now you ask why is that significant? Because it meant that I now needed a Visa to work in the USA. Not a problem, Canadians are eligible to a TN Visa that allows them to work temporarily in the US for a maximum of 3 years before needing to renew.   Meaning I had to head home for a quick visit and then cross back and would be issued my visa at the border.  Sounds easy right? Wrong!


  Long story short, I got turned back on my first attempt due to the lack of something called a Visascreen that is now required for all foreign nurses coming to work in the US. Now I will go into details on the Visascreen in a later post, because it really needs that much space to get into it. But it did hold me up by 4 weeks! That "short trip" home ended up being a 5 week stay, thank god my dear friend who originally volunteered to let me crash at her place didn't get sick of me being there all that extra time.  Thankfully the lovely people at Local Hospital were amazingly understanding and did everything they could do to help.  I arrived home late last week to a very lonely Mr. who was tearing out his hair over final exams.


  The last week has been spent getting ready for my big debut in the ICU. The very next day after arrival I headed in for my physical, where I was cleared for duty and then told I would need to be stabbed with a needle 4 times. Here's a little secret, while I have no problems giving the injection, I HATE needles! Although this gal was awesome and the Tdap shot barely hurt. This was then followed by 4 days of orientation, teaching and then on the last day a surprise test!


  Anyone ever taken the B-Kat? It's a national exam that lets the folks looking at your file know exactly how much you know in your area of nursing. Yep they gave me a 100 question exam to test what I knew about critical care nursing. I could have helped them out with that answer...nothing!  The Nurse Educator came over after she had marked my test with a concerned look on her face.


  "So, how long have you worked in the ICU?"
  "Uhh, well never."
  "OH!"
  "Infact I'm a new grad and this is my first job ever"
  "OH! Well in that case you did great!"


  If you are feeling nosy, I'll tell you that I scored a 69% on the Critical Care B-Kat

Feed it Forward

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

With the spirit of the season upon us I wanted to share

a wonderful program that I found online.

Restaurant.com

has a program running called

"Feed It Forward"

which allows you to gift up to 40 people 

with a $10.00 credit to Restaurant.com that will

allow them to buy gift certificates to a number of restaurants 

of their choice.

If you don't have 40 people to give to you can 

donate these gift certificates to

"Random Acts of Kindness"

which will distribute them to those in need.

This program runs until December 25th

go check it out and give some holiday cheer!

In the spirit of giving, 

if you would like a free $10.00 gift certificate,

leave me a comment on this post telling me

what you are grateful for this holiday season

 and I will send you one before Dec 25th!

(don't forget to include your email address)

The Martians Are Coming!

Being back in my home town of Toronto has been fun.

It's amazing how much the city has changed since I was 

last here.

The martians are coming!

Like this guy.

He wasn't here the last time I was. 

Certainly an odd choice in art

but I'm sure the Martians will feel right at home when they see him.

Public Healthcare Woe's

When people learn I was born in Canada the first thing out of their mouth is usually

"Why on Earth did you leave? Don't you get free healthcare there?"

No, we don't. 

We have public healthcare funded by tax dollars.

Yes, it's true that I a person does not have to pay for ER visits

but it also means that there is a lack of certain things you get in 

private healthcare, like customer service.

Here is a small example of what I mean,

I recently visited home and while there my grandmother 

fell and ended up in the ER.

While I was there she needed to get up and use the commode,

instead of bothering the nurse I helped her up to use it and got her back 

into bed.  It was change of shift so I let the nurse take report and come 

around to get vitals. While she was taking vitals I pointed out that the 

commode was full and that the foley bag needed emptying.

The nurse said that she would return in a moment to do both.

I waited 30 minutes and watched the foley bag get fuller,

I waited another 15 minutes before approaching the nurse 

and offered to empty both the foley and the commode if she could 

tell me where she would like me to empty it.

She got annoyed and told me she would be 

"right there"

I spent an hour there visiting with my grandmother,

the foley and commode never got emptied while I was there.

My uncle who stayed with my grandmother that night told me

he had to ask 3 more times before anyone took care of it.

Sadly, this is pretty typical

and not the first or last story I have about

public healthcare.

Pysch Test

This brings back memories of the psych tests we took.

Yes, nurses have to a pysch portion too...

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Hmmm,
What does it say when every nursing student I showed it to answered "F"?

Social Experiment

Source: jeffbridges.com via Valerie on Pinterest

Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:

The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:

A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children.. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly..

45 minutes:

The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.

The questions raised:

*In a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?

*Do we stop to appreciate it?

*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.

How many other things are we missing?

Got an Extension Cord?

This one is courtesy of a friend of mine.

His mom is a nurse and snapped this photo.

Hmm that's a long extension cord

Hope that Coke machine is really close to the

patients room or else everyone is going to be 

tripping on the extension cord.

That Explains A Lot

I found this one in the liquor store

on a bottle of Canadian Whiskey.

So that's what the Fed's are doing with all their time

Maybe the government should supervise other

activities with such care.

Share your funny labels by emailing them to:

newbienurse78@gmail.com

Do They Proof Read?

I love finding funny labels.

Here's a good one,

a touch juvenile but funny.

Further over on the label it says
"Hot and Ready in 5 minutes"

OK so that's my juvenile humor for the day.

If you have a funny label you'd like to share
please email it to me at
newbienurse78@gmail.com

Braaains!

A little nursing humor appropriate for the time of year.

If you have never been to Nurstoons please check 

out the website here for a good chuckle

Patients Say the Strangest Things

  Don't no what made me think of this but I thought I'd share:


  Back in my LPN days I was helping out a co-worker who had fallen behind in rounds, my hall had a low census so I went to pitch in. She asked me if I could administer meds to a nice lady down the hall. I gave the little lady her meds and asked her if she had had a BM or gone to the bathroom today. She laughed at me and said,


  "Oh no sweetie, I don't go to the bathroom, I pee through my blood."


  Not knowing the patient I just accepted the answer, asked her if there was anything else she needed and went to see my buddy.


 "Hey, your lady in 34B just said she doesn't go to the bathroom, she pee's through her blood?"


  "Oh yeah, she's a dialysis patient. She always forgets what its called"

D.I.Y. Dentistry

Yesterday I was sitting on couch

eating a bowl of gumbo,

suddenly I feel this crunchy,

gritty sensation in my mouth.

Upon further examination,

it appears that the filling in my

back molar has come out.

Of course it would happen now,

when I have no money and no insurance!

So, I do what any prudent nurse does,

hop on the internet and see what one

does to treat this problem.

Here's what I found:

Rinse twice a day with a chlorxehexidine based mouth wash,

brush gently, avoid chewing on that side

and get this stuff.

OTC temporary filling!

I went out this morning

 and picked it up at my local

Walgreens.

The stuff looks like white putty in a teeny tiny jar.

Scoop some out, roll into a ball 

and cram it into the offending hole in tooth.

Done!

Avoid eating for 1 hour to let it cure,

and I now have a filling that feels as secure as 

the original one.

Best $4.00 I spent all week.

I Want to Crawl Under a Rock....

Oh yes, 

I knew it was going to be a day.

The paperweight that is my phone rang,

I just about jumped out of my skin

and 

grabbed it and answered in my most 

professional voice,

"Hello this is Nurse Kitty"

The voice on the other line said 

"Hello this is HR lady from the group that Local Hospital is 

affiliated with...."

And that's when 

the phone fell from my hands, hit the floor and promptly

hung up on HR lady.  I desperately check caller ID, it comes up as unknown.

It's been an hour and no call from HR lady again.

I think I'm going to crawl under a rock now.

But I Just Got My License

I feel your pain buddy

  So I gave up hope on ever hearing back from Local Hospital yesterday when I received no call in response to my hi-remember-me? call.  Back to the job boards! I found a couple that looked promising, one for a Big Corporation.

 I sit down to begin the process of filling the huge online application out and get to the part where they want me to list all my certifications,


  Basic Life Savings, >click<
  Registered Nurse, >click<
  IV Therapy Certified >click<


Doing good, I was thinking I might get that thing done before lunch. 


  Enter Issue date, month >click< / year >click<
  Enter Expiry date, month >click< / year....uhhhh wait a minute. 
  The drop down menu only gave me up to the 2011.


I knew then it was going to be a long day.....

What They Didn't Cover in Nursing School

Me this morning, last night, yesterday.......

  Couldn't sleep, I think I finally passed out around 3am yesterday...er...this morning(?) Got up at 7am because I couldn't stay asleep and stumbled around like a zombie waiting for 10am to roll around because I have decided that is an acceptable hour to make that "Hi, remember me?" call. 

  Oh yeah, someone upstairs must be having fun with me today because that silent paper weight I call a phone has been ringing like mad, no one I want to talk to unfortunately. One guy actually called me saying that T-Mobile gave him the same phone number as me and then tried to carry on a conversation asking me where I lived. CREEPY!

  So anyone out there want to give this newbie a hand? This is where nursing school has left me woefully uneducated. I can jump into a code, have been a first responder for a spinal injury but I am lost about the hiring practices. So if anyone, ANYONE wants to chime in on these questions please do!

1. How long is "normal" for it to take a hospital to get back to you with an offer of employment?
2. How long should you wait before you decide you don't have the job?
3. Do you get a "thanks but no thanks" call, email etc? Or do they never talk to you again?
4. I've called once, is it permissible to contact again and how long do I wait?
5. Any tips on how to get a job?

  I'd love to hear from anyone, I mean it's something to do other than climb the walls right?

The Suit Makes the Nurse?

Wouldn't life be easier if we all had 

to wear this?

  

  Having decided that wearing a suit was necessary for my second interview I went into a bit of a panic. I don't own one and being a new (and unemployed) grad, I hardly have the money to shell out the hundreds that a decent one can cost. Lucky for the Mr. I have always been a cheapskate and have no problems rolling up the sleeves and digging out a good deal. Earlier in the week I had been to Ross and noted a number of high end suits for good prices, so off we went.

  Having never had to wear a suit I needed back up so I dragged along the only person in the family who has had to wear one, the Mr.  We arrive at Ross and begin digging through the racks of unorganized women's wear, pulling out suits one by one and then off to the dressing room. The lady running the area took pity on the Mr. and got him a chair, she knew we were in it for the long haul.  So let me share what I have learned about a business suit.

Quality

  There is no substitute for a quality suit, you really can see the difference. Think of the suit as an investment, do you really plan to never interview again? Of course not, so buy a suit that will last. Cheap suits use cheap material, you will see and feel the difference yourself as soon as you put one on, I did right away and the cheap suit went back.

Color

  Or maybe this is where we talk about the lack there of. Your best bet is to buy something neutral, dark grey or black are often the safest choices, and being so versatile you can wear them again for other functions. Also look at what works best with you complexion, I found that grey's made me look a little washed out so I opted for a classic black.

Fit

  This is where I really needed the back up, and if you are a novice at suit buying take someone who is going to be painfully honest. I'm lucky my grandmother was a seamstress and gave me a these basic tips to go by, and here is a model to illustrate what a good fitting suit looks like.

1. The shoulder seam on the jacket should line up with your shoulder, no going past and no sitting farther up, either means the jacket does not fit so put it back. Also it should not feel tight under the arms or across the back.
2. The jacket should fit close to the body but you still need to be able to button the jacket up easily. There should be no puckering in the waist when you do up the jacket.
3. Pants should be tailored but not tight. Translation: If you look in the mirror and think "hmmm I will need to wear a thong with these pants" put them back! No one needs to see your pants crack during an interview, please we have enough nurse-sleeping-with-whoever stereotypes!

  Based on these lovely tips (and some candid input from the Mr.) I selected a nice black suit (Calvin Klein) that was well priced at $80.00 down from $180, score! I liked it because of a couple of less than traditional touches that made it a little more modern and more me, I paired the suit with a pair of pumps with a modest 2 inch heel and a blue camisole underneath.  Strangely I notice this suit made me feel confident, attractive and ready to take on the world. 

   Hmmm a girl could get used to this!

My First Real Nurse Interview

Friday was a bust too,

but I knew that.

The rational part of my brain is saying

if it took them a full seven days to call 

me back for an interview, then

there is no way I will have an offer 

before than.

So I went for some retail therapy.

Unfortunately for me (and the retailers)

there was nothing worth buying.

So for the other newbies,

lets talk about interview stuff.

You Are Here

The Call Back

  So just when I was ready to give up and admit that there was no way I would hear from Local Hospital again, my phone rings on Friday. Just about scaring the living daylight out of me, I look and it's a local area code, OK gotta get this. The voice on the other line is the recruiter that I met last week at the open house. She tells me my pleasant nurse in scrubs wants to schedule a "peer interview" (huh?) on Monday and what time would be best for me? So we settle on a time, I calmly hang up and then do a little dance across our hall to the Mr. I tell him that "we" have an interview on Monday. He of course has to ruin my little celebration by saying,

  

  "That's great! So what are you going to wear?"

  Uhhhh crap. My only pair of slacks now have a nice coke stain due to that little maneuver I pulled last week (read about it here) and what the heck do you wear to a "peer interview" and what the heck is a "peer interview"? Now the celebratory mood is quickly dissolving into uncertainty, time to research the issues at hand.

1. What the heck is a peer interview?
2. What does one wear to a peer interview?

Well after some research (asking a ton of people I know and Google) I came up with these answers.

1. A peer interview is when a panel of people that work in the area they are considering you for get to interview you and later tell the hiring manager what they think. They are often looking for fit in the department, will you be a pain to work with, how will you interact with your clients, and generally will it work out? From what I can glean, getting asked back for one of these is a good thing.
2. I learned what to wear to an interview varies hugely depending on who you talk to and what profession you are in. If you check out that link you will see what I mean. Thanks Business Week, that was NOT helpful. So I polled some Nursing School buddies and many of them agreed a suit was the way to go. The best advice I got was "Dress for the job you want, not the job you are interviewing for"

  With that sage advice I decided a suit was a must, I mean we go through school being told that we are going to be Healthcare Professionals and as nurses we have a ton of professional  associations and certifications to join and earn, so why not treat it as such and walk in attired as a professional. I mean the worst that can happen is I am totally over dressed and they can chuckle about the cute newbie later, right?

The Setup

I am going to wear a hole in the hardwood.

I can't sit still

and

my cellphone is sitting here as quiet 

as a paperweight.

Honestly,

how long does it take to give someone a call

and let them know yes or no?

Well to keep me from damaging the floor too badly

let me tell you how I got into this predicament

and then we can take bets on 

who thinks I'm in or out.

The Setup 

  At this time it had been a week since I had written (and passed) the NCLEX which I swore I had failed when leaving. I had about 50 or more politely worded rejection emails from various hospitals saying something along these lines....

  "Thank you for applying but you are totally unqualified for this job and we are not interested in training a new graduate on this unit at this time. Please feel free to apply again when you have some real nursing experience, but please do keep trying you might get lucky"

  I can't sleep, so when my phone goes off at 6:30AM, I am thankful for the excuse to get out of bed and check the message. The text is from a family member letting me know a local hospital is having an open house, no time or place, just that little nugget of info. I check on their website, nothing, random internet search reveals nothing, so I do the one thing that I never do...turn on the morning news. Ugh! And there it is being read by a way-too-cheery-for-this-time-in-the-morning-before-my-coffee news anchor. I scribble down the time and place and while walking the dog, dial up my Best Nursing School Buddy (BNSB from here forward) and convince her that I am doing her a favor by taking her if she drives. 

  

 BNSB arrives and we head out to the Local Hospital wearing our professional-but-not-trying-too-hard outfits, mine is the only pair of slacks I own, grey wool and a green knit shell over top a collared shirt. We arrive at the "event" and are greeted by a recruiter who asks us if we have filled out an online application, of course I have, BNSB on the other hand has not. The recruiter shows BNSB to laptop and she get settled in for the long haul. If you have not yet had the pleasure of filling one of these things out the only piece of advice is get ready to be in one place for a LONG time. These apps ask for your last 10 years of employment history, the last 10 places you lived and a sample of DNA, slight exaggeration....but only a slight one.

  While BNSB is trying to remember her last 5 addresses, the recruiter finds me in the system and hands me off to a very pleasant lady in scrubs who ushers me to the back room to talk. After a few of the usual interview questions we begin to chat a little and I loosen up and become more of a person. I like her, long time vet of the profession who has done just about everything and then she asks me what I would say to surgery. In the back of my mind I was laughing, here's the big joke...I am NOT about surgery. I have had the privilege to stand in on a number of surgeries through nursing school, and if you get the chance kiddo's I highly recommend jumping on it, but I have very little interest in doing the job of a surgical nurse. I pause then recover and admit that surgery is very technically interesting, and of course would jump at a chance to do it. Honestly I would, it's a job that gives you experience, not my first choice but hey New Grad can't be picky. She also mentions in an off hand manner that ED and ICU are also looking for candidates, but more importantly she tells me she likes me and thinks I could work out well in her department. We end on that note with a handshake and she escorts me back outside into the lobby where she hands over my resume to the recruiter and tells her she would be "very interested" in pursuing this resume. The recruiter puts my resume into a little pile and lets me know she will be in touch with me by the end of next week. With that being said I go check in on BNSB.

  She is at a laptop looking like she's going to give up, so I kick her chair and whisper to her that they have Surgery on the table. Now unlike me BNSB's dream is to end up in the OR in someway other than a patient. So she settles in and gets that sucker done, and then finds out there is an online personality test to take, I totally let that one slip my mind!  So I settle on grabbing a soda from the buffet table and attempt to sit down with it. Bad decision. True to form I bobble the can and end up dumping the whole thing into my lap in front of all the interviewers who turn to look when the can hits the floor. Wishing I could crawl under the chair I grab some napkins mop up the mess on me and the floor as gracefully as possible and then grab a spritz of sanitizing foam before finding a quiet seat to retreat to.

  BNSB finally gets done with that blasted laptop and is ushered back with my pleasant lady for a chat. They are gone for a short time and when they come out BNSB is positively floating, she has a huge smile on her face and out pleasant lady gives the recruiter her resume which goes into the little pile. We both say our good byes to everyone and head out to the car where no one inside can hear us squealing like giddy school girls. On the ride home we spend the time trying ti figure out if what just happened was real, what it all meant and what the heck we do next. 

  So the waiting game begins here.....

The Waiting Game

I hate waiting.

I think everyone does.

But waiting for someone else to get back to you

with news that could potentially change your life....

that makes waiting hard!

I had a peer interview on Monday,

everything seemed to go well.

I met the Charge Nurse of the area

I was interviewing for and the director of another 

area they were considering me a fit for.

I got a tour of the facility 

and both areas.

I went home feeling very positive.

I wrote my thank you letter.

And now I can't let my cell out of my sight

and have been checking it obsessively.

Now the doubts are creeping in.

What if I messed that up?

I replay what was said over and over in my head.

Should I I have answered that differently?

Did I get everyone's name right on that thank you note?

Argh!

I think I'm going to go find something to entertain 

myself with before my husband (and myself)

goes nuts!

RN, Now What?

Graduation is done,

 I have that lovely piece of paper now that proclaims that 

I have satisfied all requirements of the nursing program. 

NCLEX is done,

I received the confirmation that I passed in the mail.

Wow that is possibly the worst picture I have ever 

had taken of me. 

And yet, it is one that I will cherish for a long time .

So, now what?

Please call me Kitty,

I've been a nursing student for the last couple years.

I recently graduated, wrote my board exam 

and now call myself an RN.

After years of knowing exactly what to expect,

what classes to take

and 

basically having my life scheduled for me,

I now find myself asking,

"now what?"

I hope you will join me on this journey

through all this unknown.

I can promise we will have some laughs

along the way.

Welcome to my story,

I wish I knew how it goes and where it will lead me.

But I know it will be an adventure!

Welcome to RN: The Early Years