Going back to work after 6 months medical leave- what to brush up on?

[palesarah]

I've been out on medical LOA due to my seizure disorder since late January. I had only been working in my NICU for about 10 months when I had to take this almost 6-month-long LOA. I've probably posted 2 or 3 times in the past few months that I was going back "any day now", but I really think it's going to happen now- I've been free of absence seizures for over a month now, and my last generalized seizure was in March. It seems like we finally hit the right combination & doses of drugs to get my brain back in gear. When I last spoke to my neuro doc, he said he wanted me free of absence seizures/losses of consciousness and free of drug side effects for 4 weeks. I'm there. I see him Friday. I hope to be back at work and complaining about the hours next week

I never realized until this year that I'd been having partial seizures & absence seizures my entire adult life, and now that they are under control, I am having a much easier time learning & understanding things. I've been studying some of the things I could never fully wrap my mind around before- cardiac issues, mostly- over the past month or two but a few days ago it hit me. I've forgotten a lot of the "little" things! Things like appropriate blood sugar ranges and blood gas results. And now I'm afraid that I when I go back, I may not realize what I've forgotten and it's scaring the you-know-what out of me!

I've never been afraid of asking questions- patient safety is far more important than my ego. But if anyone can point out some of the little, everyday things- you know, those kind of things that are second nature when we're working and therefore hard to list when we're thinking of important things we do/need to know!- so I don't HAVE to take time away from patient care to remember them when I realize I've forgotten them (make sense?) I would really appreciate it. I guess it takes more time to put my "broken" brain back together than I realized!

TIA, Sarah B

[cathys01]

I would ask if I could be paired with somebody for the first week, just to get back into the groove. I am only working NICU now PRN, and working adult ICU full time. Sometimes it can be 3-4 weeks between my NICU days and I feel lost; procedures change, policies change, they might be trialing new equipment, etc.. I can't imagine going in there after having been out for six months...and I did NICU for 2 years before I left to go PRN (so I feel I was pretty proficient at it).

[palesarah]

I was under the impression after my last communication with my DON that I will at least have a designated resource nurse for awhile, and they specifically want me to start back on days (I'm a rotator) to get back into the groove. I don't think anyone is expecting me to be able to hit the ground running, except me :)