Category: goals

#33. Get Promoted!

I am just knocking these goals out all over the place! Now I need to work on getting some more of the easy ones out of the way so I can get cracking on the time-consuming and difficult ones.

Yesterday I was promoted! I knew that I would achieve this goal, because it happens after one year of employment. But it wasn’t just like all I had to do was stick around for a year. There was a very lengthy process involved before I was ready to have my evaluation. I’m so glad to have it behind me! Now I am officially a “clinical colleague”.

The evaluation itself wasn’t too intimidating; all the work had been done previously. I had to rate myself in about 50 bazillion categories and be prepared to give reasons why I gave myself that rating. My director and manager rated me on the same categories, and during my evaluation I read over what they said about me. For the most part the ratings were the same or one point lower/higher than I gave myself, and I had no disagreements. We talked about my goals, some classes I want to take, and my involvement in hospital committees. Then she told me what my pay increase will be, and when it takes effect. It’s very nice to work for a company that, as told to me by its lawyers during orientation, “will never run out of money”.

I feel a lot more relaxed about work now, and with camp out of the way I have a lot more discretionary time. I’m looking forward to tackling some more home improvement projects soon, finding more furniture that we need, attempting to cook more often, and of course spending quality time with David, which is my favorite activity. :)

July 2, 2009
#46. walk the kemah boardwalk

The weekend right before I went to camp David and I were adult sponsors and small group leaders for a Disciple Now event for the youth group in our church. One of the fun things we did with the kids on Saturday was go to Kemah. I was excited because it was one of the items listed on my 101 goals!

Really bad picture of the entrance

The very first thing we did (before David lost his nerve ;)) was ride Bullet, the wooden roller coaster. And although it was jarring, it was a blast! If I was rich I would have bought the photo that they took of us while we were on the ride. It showed me smiling, and David with his eyes about to pop out of his head. I was more than likely smiling because I was watching his expression. :) He actually enjoyed it, though!

Then we spent a bunch of time just wandering around. We realized there wasn’t much to do without money; all it is is shops, rides, and restaurants. But we were with my friend Lauren and another friend from church, Steve, so it was a good time. We challenged Steve to take the test of strength. He was talking a big game and he almost hit the mark!

After awhile we met up with the rest of the adults from the church and had a yummy (free!) dinner at Landry’s. I made sure there was enough time to grab some ice cream. Then we went back to meet up with the crazy teenagers. It was definitely a fun day!

Me and Lauren at the end of the hot day.

One more item down!

June 30, 2009
Diary of a Rookie Camp Nurse
I’m back from camp and it’s good to be home. I’m going to attempt to sum up the week I had for you, and I’m going to start by getting a few points out of the way:

>If you grew up going to camp every summer as a kid, then worked all summer at camp until you graduated from college, and even wanted to work full-time at camp for awhile, and therefore you are very excited about going back as the camp nurse, know this: it will NOT be the same thing. It won’t be what you remember. Especially if it’s a different camp than the one you grew up with and you don’t know that many people. Being the camp nurse is a somewhat lonely and isolating experience. You have to be available at all times, and if you leave your cabin (like for meals, or all-camp gatherings) you have to leave a sign on the door and take your phone with you. I realize now more than ever that I would hate to be a doctor because I would hate to be on call. I like knowing when my time is truly my own. So at camp I would end up spending long hours at a time alone in my cabin, but I couldn’t really relax because someone could come in at any moment.

>If you think that you’ll go to camp and get a lot of exercise and continue your triathlon training, think again. My sleep schedule was thrown all off, so I was way too tired to wake up early and go run or swim until the next-to-last day. And early in the morning is the only time that was feasible to exercise.

>It’s a lot harder to give meds to kids at camp than it is to give meds to adults in a hospital. I had to track the little suckers down. I found it easiest just to carry all the meds around with me in my backpack at all times so I could catch them. That, and a homemade first aid kit for fixing cuts and scrapes on the run.

So anyway, I arrived at camp last Sunday night and promptly received my first lesson: be flexible. They couldn’t find the key to the nurse’s cabin. Turns out the nurse from the previous week (an older lady who has been there for years, and is kind of protective of her “space”) had kept it, along with all the registration supplies, on purpose so that she would have a chance to “talk” to me. Lecture, more like. She practically ambushed me at the infirmary and made me late to registration. Thank goodness I’m such good friends with the directors, or I might have made a bad first impression.

My home for the past week

Registration went fine. Afterwards, I finally got a chance to settle in to my cabin. I organized health forms, made a list of food allergies to give to the cook, went over the schedule, unpacked, and read over the previous nurse’s notes. All of a sudden I started to get super nervous. I was thinking, if a kid actually comes to see me, will I know what to do?

The high-tech “clinic”

My first patient (child? customer? patron?) came at 11:30 p.m. that night, right before I went to bed. Keep in mind, I’m used to going to sleep at 9 p.m. and waking up by 5 a.m. I was tired. She claimed an upset stomach. I had to call her mother to get an OK to give her some Pepto, because it hadn’t been checked on the health form. (I was going to get to know this girl really well by the end of the week; I think she just liked the attention.)

My sleeping quarters. It’s not quite a Tempur Pedic, and no that’s not my comforter.

That second day I was quite frankly overwhelmed with loneliness and homesickness, something I’m not used to. Mostly I missed David, and our loving home. At camp no one paid me much attention because they didn’t know me, and I’m not exactly an outgoing person. I started to get the hang of things, but I was completely on edge every second I was alone in my cabin. Also, I couldn’t shake the feeling that people were judging me based on how young I look. I’m 27, but people think I look anywhere from 16 to 22. Usually I don’t mind because I know I’m competent with what I do. But at camp, I really didn’t know what to expect. It’s probably silly, people probably weren’t thinking that at all, but it made me feel insecure.

Thankfully, soon enough I got a chance to talk to my good friend Emily, who is the camp director along with her husband Bobby. Then the evening came, and I got to leave the confines of my little hole. I actually got a chance to talk to the kids and get to know some of them. And I actually got a good night’s rest.

Each day was better than the one before. David came to visit for an evening which was wonderful. He tried to kidnap me and take me home with him, but I don’t blame him for that. :) The kids were really adorable, and I started to kind of feel like I knew what I was doing. I got to know some of the staff’s names. I started to master the art of taking cat naps, which meant I was finally able to relax a little. I began to enjoy mealtimes, mostly because I got to sit with Emily.

Bobby, Emily, Emily’s sister Camille, and Bobby’s brother Danny singing a song by camper request

By the last day, I almost felt normal being there. I wasn’t exactly sad to leave, but there was a certain nostalgia about it all the same. Here’s a rundown of what I dealt with:
- 13 upset stomachs
- 12 cuts/scrapes/abrasions
- 8 cases of fiberglass (from the canoes – apparently you can remove the shards with pantyhose? Wasn’t expecting to come across this one)
- 5 headaches
- 3 insect stings/bites
- 2 minor joint injuries
- 2 splinters
- 1 nosebleed
- 1 pulled muscle
- 1 blistering sunburn
- 1 case of a wood chip in the form of a spike being impaled into a kid’s knee. THAT was exciting, but rather easy for me to deal with. I tried to pull it out once, it wasn’t coming, and I sent him to a doctor.
Before I left I accidentally pulled the door off its hinges. Guess I don’t know my own strength! That, or it was just a really old door. Oops.

Oh, and as for my week without internet? I missed it. A lot. I was not anticipating all the downtime and isolation, so I did allow myself one liberty: I downloaded a few apps from my iPhone. (Sally’s Spa, anyone? Love it.) But I got a lot of reading done, and the entire week was oddly relaxing, I think, if not mentally then physically. And at least I got to mostly stay out of the 100+ degree heat.

Me and Emily. She’s the one who’s pregnant, although this picture makes my stomach look swollen as well.

So there you go; an honest account of my camp nurse experience. Now I’m going to drag myself away from watching reruns of Law & Order SVU and go run for the first time in a week and a half. As always, thanks for reading. :)
June 28, 2009
#31. Take the Charge Nurse Class
I went to the 8-hour long class at Methodist the other week that supposedly taught me how to be a charge nurse. What is that, you wonder? Well, a charge nurse is basically like a supervisor. Except that we already HAVE a supervisor on our unit. Two, in fact: our director, and the nursing manager. The manager acts as the charge nurse Monday through Friday, and she doesn’t have a patient assignment. But on the weekends, we’re on our own. Someone has to charge, and that person has to have a patient assignment as well. For my weekend, that person is always my mentor Pat. But she’ll be retiring soon, so others will have to take over.

At first, being the charge nurse doesn’t seem THAT hard. Here is a basic list of duties:
- Assign patients to nurses at the beginning of the shift
- Check the crash cart/defibrillation machine
- Make sure there is the correct number of staff scheduled for the next shift
- Be aware of the situation of all the patients on the unit by taking report, visiting each room, and making rounds with the doctors if possible
- Help out the staff as needed and address any questions or concerns on the unit as they come up
Okay, well maybe it does sound like a lot, especially if you have to take care of your own patients at the same time. But I’m not nervous about my ability to use my time efficiently; I’m nervous about dealing with conflict or issues with the staff. I am not an assertive person by nature. I dislike conflict. In fact, during class we took a test to determine our style of dealing with conflict and mine was a tie between avoiding and accommodating. I think that in real life I surprise myself and act differently than my gut tells me to, but I answered the questions on the test with my first instinct and this is what I got.

The following weekend after the class I got the chance to put my newly acquired charge nurse skillz into practice. Pat was there for any questions I might have, but she let me charge. I had to deal with quite a lot of issues, but I came out alright. The part I liked about it was getting to meet all the patients on the unit and provide some care for them without the hassle of documentation. I liked feeling in the know about everything that was going on.

But what I didn’t like was staff issues. Apparently I made a couple of mistakes in staffing, which were pointed out to me by my director when she returned. Also, there seems to be constant conflicts on our unit between the nurses and PCA’s (patient care assistants, which are like nurse’s aides). They all have extremely strong personalities, and I would rather just stay out of it. But as the charge nurse I have to be in the thick of it.

Overall, I don’t like being the charge nurse and I don’t really want to do it. I didn’t get into nursing to be in charge of other nurses; I got into nursing to care for patients. I hate the politics of the workplace and I don’t understand why everyone can’t just do their job and get along. I’m going to have to be the charge nurse this weekend again, and I’m not looking forward to it. But this is what my unit needs from me, so I guess I’ll just do it and hopefully become a better person along the way!
June 11, 2009
Goals Update

Just wanted to check in and let you know how I’m doing with my 101 goals. Although I’ve only fully completed one task, I am working in bits and pieces on others. So for the sake of accountability, here’s the update:

#1 – Shop at a farmer’s market: I found out that one meets near my house every Saturday, and I have plans to visit with a friend of mine a week from tomorrow.

#2 – Cook dinner once a week for a month: I’ve actually cooked twice this week! And one was a new recipe! This is a breakthrough for me.

#7 – Do a bike race: I am officially in training for a triathlon, which totally counts. More on this soon.

#8 – Run another 5k: See #7

#9 – Unlock all the exercises on Wii Fit: It’s a slow process, but I’m working on it.

#10 – Do a Wii Fit body test once a week for 12 weeks: 2 weeks down.

#16 – Find the perfect mascara: I tried a new one that is definitely NOT perfect.

#20 – Pay off my credit card bill: I’m chipping away at it each month. This will probably take a couple of years, unfortunately.

#31 – Take the charge nurse class: I’m scheduled for sometime in May.

#33 – Get promoted: My annual evaluation is at the end of May, and I’m working on fulfilling all the requirements that will make me a “clinical colleague” instead of a “clinical apprentice.”

#36 – Watch all of the movies that have won Best Picture: I added them all to my Netflix queue. Only two are unavailable at the moment.

#40 – Read all the books I own but haven’t read: I added them all to my Goodreads “to read” list, and am reading one now (see sidebar).

#55 – Change passport to married name: I mailed my application, it’s out of my hands now.

#60 – Get the house painted: Through a friend, we are getting a major discount on professional painting and they’re coming next Wednesday! They are only doing the two hard rooms though; there will still be painting for us to do ourselves after that.

#73 – Babysit my new nephew: Well, he was born! That’s the first step, right?

#83 – Start using reusable shopping bags: I bought 5 at HEB. Now to use them on a regular basis!

#97 – Buy another leash and walk the dogs simultaneously: Done!

May 1, 2009