Top 10 favorite things of week one in the MICU

10. The hospital food is edible.

9. The IV pumps are the same as my previous hospital so when they go into a frenzy of beeping I now know how to fix them!

8.I will not develop carpal tunnel because we do paper charting ...and Epic, the electronic charting system, is going to roll out in X number of years.

7. My unit it known for "having all the comedians"

6. The ICU is unlocked - this means families can come and go as they please making the patients and nurses much happier!

5. Nurses get to self schedule!

4. There is soft serve ice cream in the cafeteria for when you have one of the those days.

3. When you admit a patient to the unit there are so many people helping you have to start kicking them out. Seriously!

2. My preceptors are amazing, knowledgeable, supportive, and nice. The staff nurses are inclusive, kind, and have a great sense of humor...and Wednesday nights are waffle nights!

#1. The hospital provides scrubs!!! My laundry basket is both cleaner and lighter!

Into the hot water....tomorrow

"A woman is like a tea bag-you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water."

-Eleanor Roosevelt

Here is to thinking good thoughts about tomorrow - 

my first day in the medical ICU!

View of Table Rock in Boise, ID from my hospital

Orientation: check

First week of general hospital and general nurse orientation is done! The first 2 days consisted of death by PowerPoint - pretty typical of hospital orientations so it seems.

The last 3 days of the week consisted of only nurses-everything from new grads to seasoned veterans. Half of our days were spent doing critical thinking exercises - such as viewing video clips and prioritizing patient care. The second half we reviewed and were checked off in a simulation lab for IV starts, feeding pump manipulations, sterile wound dressing changes, patient controlled analgesia pumps, IV pump management, and restraints. It was actually really nice to know what was expected of us as well as receive pointers from the nurse educators. The nicest thing about a transfer internally though is that the majority of the equipment is the same - I won't have to trouble shoot a new kind of IV pump beeping at me in the middle of the night - it will be the same old one that drives me crazy ;)

Last, but not least, is all the online education modules we have to do as RNs reviewing everything from lab draws, to hanging blood, to managing delirium in the ICU. Again there is some redundancy but it's nice to have access to some newer modules that I had not seen in my previous hospital.

My favorite part of this week was walking through the halls of the hospital when I was in search of a cup of coffee. Large hospitals are like organisms to me and I like to pretend that I am like a little cell roaming the corridors doing my one little job, but that together we are what keeps this giant running 24/7 all year long. All though there is illness inside the walls of the hospital it is also a vibrant, humming place where there is always something going on and there are always people present and busying themselves around the clock running on caffeine, adrenaline, and hope. There is something to that energy that just makes me buzz along and keeps me going for 12 hour shifts.

Monday is learning the charting system, and then Tuesday I'm back on the floor!

Games: for your health

This video by Jane McGonigal is fantastic. It talks about the value of playing as adults, but also about this woman's struggle with illness and how creative play gave her a tool to help her help herself through the healing process of a traumatic brain injury.

I found her discussion on post traumatic growth to be insightful because some people do persevere and recover from a traumatic event and those people are thought to be 'lucky' or 'resilient.' Rather this shows that they are simply using a different set of tools. The nice thing is tools can be shared, like McGonigal talks about here.

here is a link to here to her website as well: https://www.superbetter.com/

Gratitude

"Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom"

-Marcel Proust

Relocation: Boise!

It's officially started: Tomorrow is the start of general orientation at my new hospital (same hospital organization, but new city and bigger hospital). I am soooo incredibly excited and I have big dragon sized butterflies in my stomach all at the same time!

I have my note book ready, my business casual outfit set out for 2 days of boring hospital admin stuff, and then scrubs for 3 days of nurse orientation with simulation! After that who knows what my schedule will bring. Hopefully I'll be moved into our new house by the end of the month too!

A little information about Boise itself for those who are unfamiliar with the area:

• Population: roughly 210,000....the largest city between Portland, Oregon and Salt Lake City, Utah
• Climate: semi-arid climate with 4 distinct seasons....today's weather: high of 94F and low of 64F. 
• Pronunciation: Boy-see....the locals will slap you for saying Boy-zee
• Activities: Boise Downtown (BoDo), Idaho Shakespeare festival (outdoor ampitheater that has plays all summer long), the Boise River for floating/kayaking/rafting, the Boise Foothills for hiking/biking (considered the "foothills of the Rocky Mountains," and Bogus Basin for skiing/snow shoeing

My mantra for nursing

"Cure sometimes, treat often, comfort always."

~Hippocrates

I have to return to this quote on a regular basis to find my footing, to regain my common ground. This is where Hippocrates' quote must be turned inwards as well. It's not just a prescription for how we care for others, but how we must care for ourselves in order to excel at our profession.

I had another miserable, no good, awful, question my existence as a nurse sort of night. In the course of seven months, I consider 2 episodes like that to be a pretty good track record. 

However, when all hell does break loose, it frustrating the lingering effects it has upon your psyche. I have had four nights off and go back tomorrow night. I even avoided a four hour immediate pay shift (easy money and easy work!) when they were short staffed earlier this week because I absolutely couldn't bring myself to step back in the hospital that soon. I'm cringing at returning tomorrow night even.

I have replayed that 12 hour shift over and over and over and over.....it doesn't matter if I'm cooking, packing, cleaning, walking the dingoes, trying to fall asleep in this horrendous heat, or rehashing it with a coworker. I imagine this is mildly what PTSD is like. Poor souls.

It's going to take awhile to lay that night to rest, as well as feel satisfied that if I encounter a similar situation that I will be able to use what I learned from that night to make it better. 

In the meantime, I'm trying to be gentle with myself and know that reflection is the key to resilience.