Week 142

Nov 16-22

I'm going to call this post: "Do what you want!" Because life is too short not to.

I think the biggest event of this week would be the phone call from Palmetto Richland Hospital offering me my dream job. :) PEDIATRIC EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT here I come! I am so excited because I feel like a certain chain of events has led me to where I am now in my career.

It is so funny because all through college I insisted that I wanted to work in pediatrics. My teachers told me I needed to try out a few different areas to really see what I would like. I still insisted I wanted to work with kids.

My first job as a nurse tech (kind of like a nurse assistant) was on a pediatrics floor at a small hospital in Georgia. I can still remember when I first stepped on that unit and saw the bright colors, toy room, stickers, cribs instead of big beds. The whole thing was catered to kids. I was in heaven. I just knew this was where I belonged. As a student working on the floor I learned as much as I could from those nurses. I asked questions and paid attention to every thing they did.

I don't know why, but for some reason nursing students are always told that you can't get your first job in places like pediatrics, emergency department, etc. "You have to work on a general medical/surgical floor first to get your skills down." That was all I ever heard. I think they just tell you that because no one wants to work there and they are always short staffed on those units. I remember thinking "forget that...I'm working pediatrics." That is what I did.

In my area there was one small community hospital down the street, one hospital 30 miles north in Brunswick (where I was a nurse tech), and a bunch of hospitals 30 miles south in downtown Jacksonville. I'm sure a normal person out of college would apply for as many jobs as they could and hope to get anything. I remember looking at all the jobs and thinking, "I don't like any of those." Then I saw a job for a nurse at Wolfson Children's Hospital. It wasn't even a job for a "new grad." I think they were asking for at least 1 year of experience. I applied anyway.

I got called in for an interview and I remember not even being that nervous when I walked in. I had convinced myself that this was my job and this is where I was supposed to be. I walked out of the interview with the job and to this day (so far) it was the best job I ever had. I learned so much from my preceptor Catie. She was amazing. I looked up to her so much and she taught me everything I needed to know. She was super smart. I remember she had just taken her test to be a Board Certified Pediatric Nurse and I was determined to do the same thing as soon as I could (you have to have at least 2 years experience and a bunch of other qualifications before you can take the test).

After one year of working at an amazing place, we had to move (thanks Navy). I was still determined to stay in pediatrics. It is a difficult field to get into because once people land the positions, they tend to stay there forever. The closest children's hospital was over an hour and a half away so that was out. I had three smaller hospitals near my house to choose from. There wasn't even a job in pediatrics listed anywhere, but I didn't see any other jobs I liked so I called the director of pediatrics and asked her if she would look over my resume and call me if something became available. She asked me to come down right away and interview and I had a job once again on the spot. When I had been a nurse for about a year and a half I started studying for my board certification. It's a pretty big deal and only one other nurse on the whole pediatrics unit had the title.

I was a little intimidated because I was the youngest nurse with the least experience on the pediatric unit. I studied for 6 months straight and then scheduled my test. When I found out that I had passed I was so excited!!! At this point I had worked on the pediatric unit at the small hospital for a year and business was slowly waning. We didn't really get a whole lot of kids and it was getting boring for me. This was when I decided to transfer to the Emergency Department. At least they get kids who come in there. It was definitely scary going from my safe world of pediatrics to full blown Emergency Department with EVERYTHING coming in. I learned so many new skills from the nurses there. I felt so lucky to be given the chance to work in the E.D. without experience.

When we first decided to move back home to Columbia I started stalking the jobs listed at the children's hospital. I REALLY wanted to work in the Pediatric Emergency Department. To this day, I have never seen a position listed for that job. When I was ready to apply for a new job after Abel had gotten a little older, I applied for a position in the regular adult E.D. thinking that it was at least one step closer and eventually I could transfer to where I wanted. When I was called to interview for the adult E.D. job I was told there weren't any positions available for the pediatric E.D. but my resume would be provided to the nurse manager.

A couple of days later the nurse manager called me and asked if I could come in for an interview. Of course I could!! I wasn't even sure if this was for a "real" job or just to keep me in mind in case something ever did come open. I had a total of three interviews for the job and after the last one (a peer interview with the night shift nurses) I received a call from the nurse recruiter offering me a full time night shift position in the pediatric E.D. Wahooo!!! It's like it was meant to be.

Don't ever let others convince you that you can't do what you want to do. If you are meant to do something, somehow it will happen. I am so excited to start my new job. Orientation is on December 19th.

In the meantime I am going to enjoy my last few weeks as a full time "stay-at-home" mom. We have had a lot of fun lately with our play group The Busy Bees. I have met tons of cool moms my age to hang out with (while Jack has had a blast playing with tons of other kids). This week we went to the fire station. It was cute. The firemen did a whole presentation for the kids with music and a puppet show. They also let the kids tour the station and climb all over the trucks. Each kid got a goodie bag and a hat. Jack kept asking where Uncle Will was. He didn't quite understand that this was a different fire station. He still loved it.

Next week is Thanksgiving and that means the end to our "fall/harvest" decorations. Christmas is coming!!! Almost time for the tree and all of the Christmas decorations. Have a great week!