Hospital Orientation

Monday morning I started my new job. Well, to be fair, it was my first day earning a paycheck, but I have not really started working yet. Hospital orientation is a necessary evil that scares some nurses so much that they work at the same hospital their entire careers. A far as hospital orientations go, the one I have been in this week is not half bad.

Monday we started off with company wide orientation where you learn about just how large the system you work for actually is. No one except CEO's really care how the company started or it's humble beginnings. The funnest part of this was finding out that company headquarters are in King Of Prussia, PA. I was more interested in how this city got such an obtuse name as King Of Prussia and how it landed straight in the middle of Pennsylvania.

The next segment was on a "Culture of Care" and it was tag team taught by a truly Southern couple, complete with ya'lls and drawls. The husband portion of the team has a pitch and roll to his voice that harkened me back to my Baptist days. As colorful as he was, when he ripped into his 25 minute sermon on compassionate care and teamwork, I was on fire with spirit of the message. I could feel the pull of long forgotten joys associated with bedside care. I remembered that not only did I love working in the hospital, but that I was good at it. While the regimented grind sometimes pulverizes others, I thrive in an environment of order and near obsessive adherence to a schedule. I cannot express the internal satisfaction that I get from meeting the clear cut expectations required to be a hospital nurse. I know at 7 I must do assessments, 9 is morning meds, 10 is hygiene, 12 is lunch, 2 are procedures. My neurotic nature is perfectly designed to thrive in that setting.

After a deli counter lunch that left something to be desired, we did an additional four hours of no real note, except for one thing. I know you all know what a huge nerd I am, and this was typified at the sheer excitement I felt when I found out our facility uses Zoll defibrillators. I normally try to scrub my blog of any personal identifiers, but the picture at the top of this blog is me in 2007 at the Critical Care Nursing Conference in Atlanta. They were demoing the then new Zoll Defibrillators. The Zolls are just like in other standard defibrillators in that they deliver shocks through pads place on the chest, but what makes Zolls so special is that they give constructive feedback on how well your chest compressions are being given. At the conference, you first do one minute of CPR with no instruction and it gave you a rating on how well you did on rate, depth, pressure. I am ashamed to say I got a 39%. Then you do another minute of CPR with the verbal correction on and I this time I got a 97%. I am sure no one person who reads this cares, but I am simply salivating for my first code (and by that I mean so we can save them, not that I am cold hearted and wishing for people to die).

The second day was a bit of a snooze. We did every module that I had drilled into me while in the SNAP program like the Braden scale, core measures, restraints, organ donation, scope of practice, Accuchecks, etc. I seriously could teach these modules, and in the case of the Braden scale, I have. But, as Flip pointed out, it is better to bored to tears because you could take the test without the module presentation and be just fine than to feel overwhelmed and behind. I am just hoping that all the anxiety about lost knowledge when I get to the floor flows back just as easily. Interesting side note I learned on this day, techs cannot do finger sticks in the state of Nevada. Super, my first shift with a patient who needs them every hour should be awesome.

Today we did our computer training. The worst part of computer training is that fact that the entire class has to go as slow as the slowest person. I tend to be that person who is first done with their test, whom you actually secretly hate, so it was a bit painful doing 4 hours of work in 8 hours. Despite the snail's pace, exploration of the system unleashed my excitement. I cannot wait to get on the floor. I have not felt this kind of job excitement in quite a few years. I am ready to blast forward with plunge in head first.

I feel like I spent the first few years of being a nurse pulling myself up to a certain level of proficiency, constantly relearning things that were only words on a page before. I am now ready to build my career. I have a plan (then again, don't I always). I am going to start on night shift, which will be a great way to ease myself back into the swing of things and will be a great opportunity to learn what happens on the night shift because the next part of my plan is to be transferred to days. Days involves, three meals, morning meds, the bath, doctors orders, and all the procedures, and let me tell you is a whole other ball game. After about a year I hope to sit for my certification exam, the PCCN, and then apply to be a charge nurse. It is all very exciting.

Tomorrow with be another day of modules, and I am going to try to resist the urge to bring a crossword to class, and just focus on the fact I am getting paid. Monday morning I will get to see my floor for the first time. I am really excited about this new chapter in my life and honestly hope that it will be the kind of place that will cultivate a continued love for the hospital and the kind of nurse I want to be.