Hi Friends,
Happy 2019.
I am a 3 year old nurse, now. My work bestie has moved to a new city with her new fiance and has left me behind with new hires and an almost entirely new staff. The beauty is that I now have seniority on my unit. That’s pretty cool. The additional beauty is that I love all of our new hires. Man, have we managed to hire some really awesome people in the past few years. My facility is really amazing and I love the OR so much.
But.
And this is a big but…
I’m a mommy. And not just a mommy…but a single mommy. My little one is not so little anymore at nearly 7 years old, and in only 7 short years he will be ready for college. So, what does that mean for me? That means it’s time to step up my game. I’m comfortable. I wake up every morning and go to a job with people I’m comfortable with, doing things I’m comfortable doing, in an environment that I am totally comfortable with…and that is kinda sorta a problem. I need a challenge. Working with my new significant other has me concentrating more on my relationship than on my job. I spend more head space wondering who he’s talking to and what they think than I do on growing at my job. That’s a problem.
I want to go back to school, and now that my nursing career has changed (OR vs L&D), my ideas for graduate school have changed. I wasn’t expecting to love the OR as much as I do…and I never thought I would consider this, but guys…I’m considering anesthesia school. So here’s the kicker: in order to become a CRNA (Nurse Anesthetist), I have to go to the ICU. I’m terrified of the ICU. Absolutely terrified. At the same time, I am absolutely thrilled to learn something completely different. So, off to mentor land I went, emailing all of the ICU nurses I knew personally either from hand-offs or nursing school and got their take. I talked to many anesthetists and anesthesiologists about the pros and cons, and spent many a sleepless night going over how on earth I was going to make this work. And then I did a nice search for internal transfers to see what was out there. There are so many beautiful positions out there. I revamped my resume, prayed to the application gods, and have landed myself a phone interview with an ICU.
I am absolutely and utterly terrified. When I say terrified, I mean TERRIFIED, but I’m also super excited. I promise to keep you updated because you (and by you, I mean me…) are the only friend I have in my wee head. 🙂
Hellooo Nurse! 