Saturday, July 27, 2013

"Welcome to cray cray"

Well as most of you know, I am now working at Huntsville Hospital as a Labor & Delivery nurse! :) I got my job offer in the middle of May, went through the hospital's nursing orientation the second week in June, and hit the ground running on L&D the next week. Whoa, has it been a whirlwind of a month since starting orientation. I am so so blessed to get a 16 week orientation to the unit (THANK GOODNESS) before I have to be "on my own". I am on week 7 right now. Ya'll, I had no clue what being an L&D nurse entailed. Sure, I precepted there as a student for 3 months... But working there as a licensed RN is a completely different world. I am held to a higher standard. I have to chart under my own name, so if something goes down, they will look back and see my name. I am responsible. Some of you may not understand the magnitude of this, but it is huge. And scary. And overwhelming.

Since receiving my job offer in May, I've told many people that I am an L&D nurse, and most of the time I get "aww what a fun job!" or "oh that must be the happiest job ever!" -- eeeek. Not so much. Yes, for the most part my days have been full of joy and excitement as babies are welcomed into the world.. BUT I have also had days where I could barely hold myself together due to sadness. I've been terrified. I've felt like an idiot. I've cried myself to sleep. From what I can tell over the past few weeks, as an L&D nurse our job will bring the very highest highs, along with the very lowest lows.

Labor & Delivery nursing is a crazy unique (and CRAZY challenging) job, especially for a new graduate. Jade (my nurse manager) told me this during my interview and asked if I was up for it. Wow- she was not kidding. I have to be a pre-op nurse, a circulating OR nurse, a PACU/recovery nurse, a scrub/surgical nurse, a baby nurse, a labor nurse, an antepartum nurse .... Ok, really? That is like 7 separate jobs. Talk about overwhelmed!!!

All of that being said, I wouldn't want to work anywhere else. I work with some awesome women who check up on me when they know I've had a hard day. They've encouraged me when I've made a big dummy of myself. They've challenged me to think harder and not be so timid and afraid. They push me beyond what I think I can do. I am learning so much from them, and I'm so excited to be joining their team.

So back in May when I announced my first job offer on Facebook, Amy Hall commented on it and said "welcome to cray cray" -- Little did I know, those were the most accurate words to describe what the first month of my RN experience would be like! Welcome to the world of L&D nursing, eh? :)

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