Fired After 50, Part V: Happily Ever After (I Hope!)
Fifth---and hopefully last---in a series about being out of work and over 50 in the world of nursing, which is often unkind to its elder statespersons. Just goes to prove that all things are indeed possible when you stop focusing on the "I can't" side of things and say "Oh, yes I can!" instead.
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Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am once again gainfully employed. As a nurse. At a nursing facility only ten minutes from my front door. I know what my ortho doc said about my knee, but it's healed better than either of us ever dreamed and the weight will start coming off once I'm more active again, which will also help the cause along. In the meantime, the place is clean and smells better than any nursing home I've ever been in, and it has a good 'feel' about it that gets stronger every time I enter the building. My son works there as a day-shift CNA and loves it. Thankfully, they also love him, which helped me get a foot in the door; but once I talked with the administrator and the Director of Nursing Services, it was only a matter of when I could start.
Trouble was, the full-time position doesn't start until late September, when the LPN who has held the job returns to school to finish her RN program. They also expect to need at least a part-time RCM by late fall as well, which is probably where I'll wind up eventually since I still don't think I've got much time left to be a floor nurse. But today, after 48 hours of ruminating on my miserable job-less existence and deciding that it's just not acceptable to lose my home, my car, or any of the other necessities of life, I called the DNS again and asked if there was any way I could start sooner......even if it was only a day or two per week.
"Well, now, how fortuitous that you called me just now," came the cheerful voice over the phone. "I'm sitting here with the human resources director and the administrator, and all of us are just really excited about bringing you on board. We've got some part-time hours you can have until we can work you into that full-time position on evening shift........in fact, we are prepared to extend a job offer to you today."
To say that this was the best news I've had in a long time would be the understatement of the year. After all the hurt and the frustration and the repeated rejections of the past seven weeks, the words fell on my ears like long-needed rain after a drought. So I went in to sign papers and get my drug screen done (it's been so long since I had one that I didn't know they have an oral swab test for that) and as of 1355, I was officially hired. Orientation starts next Tuesday and then they'll put me on the schedule. HURRAY!!!!!!!
I still don't know exactly what I'm going to be making, although the DNS was pretty sure he could get me higher wages than my last job because I have so much experience and most of his other nurses have relatively little. The administrator even invited me to sit in on a 'culture change' meeting since she "needed my leadership on the LTC unit", which tickled me to no end since I've ALWAYS wanted to work in a nursing home where they used the Eden Alternative or had more flexibility in the routines to make the facility more home-like. Her motto is, "The residents don't live in our facility---We work in THEIR home."
I think I already love it there.
"Grow old along with me,
the best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made."
I don't know if working at this little LTC will turn out to be the real-life version of that elusive dream, but at this point in my life, it sure beats involuntary retirement, financial ruin, and feeling like the world's biggest loser.........which makes it look really good so far.:)
