New nurse hits the floors...the journey begins

I graduated from nursing school in December, began orientation at the local hospital in January, and encountered my first deceased patient in March. This isn't my mother's nursing anymore. When she began nursing, the nurses wore sparkling white dresses with squeaky shoes and little dixie cups perched on their heads. I wear printed pajamas, really. I am still wearing the college's required squeaky white shoes. Hideous things they are. What I need are sporty yet functional sneaks. Ones that can allow me to sprint down the hallway to answer a code or that 85 year old senile man who keeps leaping out of bed as he attempts to yank out his foley cath. And I need shoes that resist stains; no more stopping off at the grocery store after work with urine, feces, blood, or vomit dripping off the soles. Yeah, I need a new pair of shoes. Super-snazzy-stain-resistant Sauconys.

It's amazing, really. In just one NCLEX, I went from being the lowly student nurse to "they actually pay me for this?" new nurse. (I'm still in the honeymoon phase). Years of studying until my brain threatened to hemorrhage lead to years ahead of learning the ropes as a new nurse. Oh how many nights I fell asleep on Lewis' "Medical-Surgical Nursing" only now to be startled awake with medical-surgical "Oh my gosh, did I remember to..." thoughts. There's one difference between being a student nurse and being a "real" nurse: as a student, you want to take the test and forget everything. As a nurse, you want to forget nothing.

This blog is a means for me to document the journey from being a new nurse to somewhere in the very distant future when I retire. Or when I feel like I kind of know what's going on while on the med-surg floor, whichever comes first. New nurse to Nurse Ratched if they keep short-staffing us.

The stories are true, yet wildly exaggerated, of course. My days of writing starched, dry, and medically sound papers are over. Okay, not over, I begin my RN to BSN journey in the fall. But at any rate, feel free to post up your own stories as we could all use a good laugh...and learn some nursing tips in the meantime. The truth is, I love what I do. Nursing is what I expected and more fun to experience the things I could have never suspected. But it's stressful just the same...trying so very hard to keep all six patients still breathing at the end of each shift. It probably wouldn't be a good thing reputation-wise to pass along a corpse to the day shift. Laughing is the gift that allows me to dress a stage 4 wound and still smile when I get home.