Ultimate Goal ACHIEVED -- TRAUMA NURSE!!!!!

Here is a long overdue update. I've been a nurse now for almost a year. I have learned so much...and there is still so much to learn!!! I guess that's the beauty of nursing. One will always be learning. IF a nurse thinks he/she knows what they need to know, watch out. There is a-l-w-a-y-s new stuff to learn in the medical field.

I've signed the paperwork for my new job as an ER nurse. It seems hardly real to write that. I've had this dream since I was 16 years old, and discovered my passion for ER in our local hospital that I volunteered at. I never quite believed it would come true, but it finally has

I recently accepted an offer for a full time, permanent position at the hospital that is 7 minutes from my home. It is an incredible opportunity and I am going to learn so much. Once I have become a competent ER nurse, there will truly be nothing in the nursing field that I cannot do. Not that I will know everything (i.e. see para above!), but in the sense that ER nurses face, and cope with, so many unexpected and unpredictable situations, that they learn to think on their feet an act quickly, as required. One NP colleague told me recently, that once I've done this job for awhile, nothing will ever scare me in the future -- in terms of thinking there is nothing I won't be able to handle.

That does not mean I'll know exactly what to do in every situation, but that I'll have the confidence in my experience and skills to know that I'm capable of coping with situations. I believe that, and it's a great feeling.

I'm somewhat dreading the upcoming lifestyle/schedule change. It is wonderful in the clinic where I currently work - no nights, no weekends. However, I do want to learn more nursing skills. I'll be staying on at the clinic casually, but really want to gain the ER skills and knowledge.

It is going to be quite the ride....I say, bring it on!!!

Trauma RN Kate

Coronary Care Course...starts tomorrow!!!

Yep, I think I set a new personal best between finishing one major educational goal, and launching right back to the school setting.

Tomorrow, I'm lucky to be starting my Coronary Care course. It is a very intense, focused 40 hour course designed for ER nurses. And I get to start tomorrow!!!

Otherwise, I'm mostly just doing fun things with the family. I was volunteering a lot these past few days in my daughters' school. I simply love being able to do that.

As far as the job front is concerned, I'm also laying low with sending out applications. This weekend we are going on a trip that has been booked and looked forward to for at least half a year now. We are off to Europe -- I'm going back to my second home away from home, to France.  I've got dual citizenship, both European and Canadian. When I'm here, I want to be there, and when I'm there, well, I kinda want to be there, but also miss Canada a whole lot.

Any way I look at it, life is good. Life is great. And I am so incredibly grateful for it all.

Kate

A Day in the Life - Laurie (ER Nurse)

I find the video below extremely inspiring. The second-career ER nurse profiled here has an energy and interest in her chosen profession that is contagious.


I know I needed real-life role-model examples when I was trying to make that extremely difficult decision to leave my secure, well-paying, established career, and jump into the unknown, where I'd be starting from scratch again. I knew with every fibre of my being that I belonged in the medical field, but it was so scary to make a mid-life transition. That is why I found it so important to see examples of other people who had done it. And not only had they made the change, but were so clearly loving their new lives.


That is where I am currently at. I am so close to finishing, it is almost tangible. After all I've learned these past eight months, I feel exponentially more like a nurse. Eight more months to go, and I think I'll be ready to start braving the world of nursing on my own. I'll still have a mountain of stuff to learn, in fact I'll never stop learning in this career, but the learning curve in those first years will be the steepest ever. I cannot wait to start.


In the interim, enjoy the profile below. I look forward to the day I may be profiled in such a video. I've got a story to tell, and I'm doing my best right now to tell it. The message is simple: find your dreams and find a way to realize them...then take action.  It doesn't have to be nursing, clearly. Find your personal passion and find a way to do it. The rewards of doing so are incredible.


Anyhow, I'm going off on a tangent now, but I just feel so passionate about encouraging others to do what they love. I had some awesome support along my path, and now I want to give that back to others.


Enjoy!!!





P.S. Thank you Johnson & Johnson for making this series of inspirational videos! There are many in this series, and I've enjoyed watching many of them. I saw my first one as I sat in my corporate office, the one where the pediatric nurse is singing a song with his little patient to help distract her from the needle procedure he's doing. I would sit there in my office with tears streaming down my face, wishing so hard that I could somehow be a nurse too. That was career-fulfilment and job satisfaction, in my books. To make a difference in someone's life is the ultimate satisfaction for me.


P.P.S. And I rocked the nursing theory class and got my A-.....wahoo, and whew....that was one of the toughest classes in this program, and its o-v-e-r!!!!!