Finished Second week of Orientation

It was another long week, but much more hands on. My head is absolutely swimming from all the information handed to us in a packet, and competencies! I am completely OVERWHELMED! This week I will actually begin my preceptoring on the Stroke Unit. I am so impressed with the knowledge and manpower on this floor. We have a Stroke Director, Department Director, Nurse Educator, NP, PT, OT, ST, Social worker, case worker, and 2 stroke MD's who absolutely specialize, all for our little 19 bed unit! We will be moving to 35-40 beds in Aug/Sept, but still! I am feeling so nervous about starting since it's been NINE months since I've done any nursing! The other 3 new grad nurses in our unit all graduated just in December, and precepted at this hospital, so I feel like I'm the only one behind. But God is big, and will get me through!


That's it for now. It will be nice to go to nursing hours and miss the traffic a bit, but I'm not used to those 12 hr shifts that I used to do. Ah well, time to buck up! I will have one orientation day (through new grad ed) and two preceptoring days from here on out. Please pray for me, I'm so darned nervous...! I am definitely feeling rusty!

My first week as an RN...

One of my favorite moments this week was getting a work badge that said RN! Wow, so amazing! All week long we've been in orientation. A lot of useful information but driving me crazy sitting so much!! This next week, we'll get 3 days of lectures, and then 2 days at the end on our unit. Not nursing preceptoring but learning our floor, and all the other roles that make up our unit (secretary, tele tech, nursing ed, PT, OT, RT, NP etc) The only negative has been driving in horrible traffic. I am not on nursing hours so it usually takes me 45-1 hr on the way to the hospital and 1.5-2 hrs on the way home (all depending on how bad the traffic/accidents are). It's still so weird to me when I leave the hospital, that if I turn right, and drive a few blocks, there's the ocean. It shouldn't blow me away, I've grown up going to the beach, but it just being there is still so strange. Our new grad group is 14, and what a bunch of nice women...and one guy it is. That's all for now. It will be so strange to get a pay check on Thursday. How bizarre. Although NICELY bizarre.

.....my hero.