Call it what you wanna call it; Maybe I'm a Workaholic

So the truth of the matter is that they pay nurses pretty well around these here parts. And they pay us even better (a lot better) if we work extra shifts. But usually extra shifts aren't available. Or they call me mid-dinner party, while I'm in Boise, or when all my scrubs are dirty and my house is a disaster. 

But I happened to be really productive last weekend and got all my bills paid and my house cleaned and was just in a good mood. And I had no upcoming plans when they asked me to pick up extra shifts. So I worked 5-12's this week, Monday thru Friday. And it was nice. Now, they called me this morning to work tonight and I was like, "Are you kidding me?" Because I had to stay an hour and a half this morning to get everything done. And it was beat!

But this week was good; I had so many good learning experiences. On Wednesday, I sent my third patient (ever) to the ICU. She was having some trouble breathing. It made me realize how important it is to check on patients often, and to listen very carefully to their lungs to listen for changes (And lungs can be a pain in the butt to describe well. Or even hear at all sometimes.) Sometimes it's easy to get complacent on our floor because everyone is so stable. I was mostly worried about how much she was eating because she felt like she was getting weak. (Lots of times that's important!)

The last two days I worked on a different floor with more cancer patients. I really liked my group assignment. I learned to hang albumin, which is a lot like trying to get syrup to flow easily through a tiny straw without drying up or getting air bubbles- kind of difficult. I saw how to use a implanted catheter (the blood kind, not the urine kind), which somehow I had never seen. And I took care of a guy with a trach, which I also hadn't done before. And last night, I had 6 patients for the first time. And gave my 3rd blood transfusion. 

The week made me think a little about an article in Oprah this month, about how women who are CEOs now never said "no" to an opportunity when they were first starting out because they had to "pay their dues." The thing is, putting in that much time really has the potential to give you more confidence in your position, improve yourself, and practice little things that may get overlooked otherwise. It's good to see how a place functions all week, instead of the three things that are there. 

It gave me a little more love for my job, and even though I'm glad for my day off, I'm really glad I did it.