It hit me today. The small town feeling, that is. For those of you that do not know already, the "small town feeling" is most easily explained as:
1. something that causes GI upset (i.e. quitting your job and moving)
AND/OR
2. a feeling of isolation (i.e. quitting your job, moving, and leaving your friends and family)
Yesterday was my curtain call at the Heart Hospital, after wonderful five years. It is where my nursing care started and I refuse to let it be the place that it will also end. Once a nurse, always a nurse right? I will always over analyze any headache (brain tumor), menstrual cramp (pregnant!), or rash (necrotizing facitis). I know how to give a bed bath and shave an unconscious patient, how to make my sheets extra crisp, and how to shoot cardiac outputs with my eyes closed. I can run a code, tamponade a bleeder, and deal with a bitchy co-worker. However,the most important thing I will take away from my career is the compassion nurses are able to extend to others. Nothing can bring you to your knees like telling a family member "they didn't make it." I have learned that a back massage, hug, or converstation can soothe pain as easily as a Percocet. And that has made me a better person and will make me a better Nurse Anesthetist.
I am setting my stethoscope aside (for now) and trading it for my study skills. Then I remembered, I didn't have any of those as an under-grad. At least I can blame my sweaty hands on the Phoenix heat!
No comments:
Post a Comment