Found a Home

Today I had one of those pivotal moments in nursing school, the one where you know you have found the field you are meant to work in.... home so to speak. Today I won the "lotto." The prize was an extra opportunity to spend the clinical day in the ER.

I always thought I would want to spend my life working in emergency medicine, but with nothing to gauge it there was no way to be sure if I would even enjoy working in that field. I LOVED IT! I don't know if it was the diversity of the patients or the fact that not one patient had the same complaint or really what it was, but I was drawn in. I know one day I will end up working in that department.

In the seven hours I was on the floor there were patients aged between 3 and 92. There was everything between common cold symptoms, to EMS arrivals, to someone calmly being pushed in a wheelchair because he had a nail shot through the leg. There was hardly and down time; of course that helps the day fly by. In the long run, it is that diversity that will help prevent complacency.

Today I also had the chance to start an IV on a living person. Got it the first time! Unlike my lab mannequin experience this one didn't bleed all over. Nor did he scream or cuss at me like I imagined would happen. He was quite surprised to find out that was my first IV attempt.

For all the complaining I have done about the drive to the hospital, I take it all back. The location is great, the staff is even better. So much so I am considering putting in an application! Yes, the drive still sucks (well the waking up earlier sucks) but at least it scenic. I just need to come up with a constructive use of the 1 1/2 hour total drive time and all will be perfect.