I have spent the last two weeks completing all of the hospital orientation stuff. Tonight I start on my floor! It is a pediatric post-op for the kids who have to stay in patient, but don't need ICU, so lots of casts, traction, chest tubes, drains, etc. We also have all of the endocrine kids. And after I am comfortable in those, I will also train in the EMU (epilepsy monitoring unit). So, I am working tonight and tomorrow night. Then I have 4(!!) nights next week. It will be exciting to get my first "real' paycheck.
One of the other new grads that I went through orientation with said all of her friends are throwing comma parties. When they get their first check with a comma in it, they all get together to celebrate. I thought that was a cute idea!
Holli
So here's my update...
First night went great last night. It was an unusually slow night, so they say, so I was able to look around and meet people. We had a 16y with liver cancer that just had the tumor removed, a 6 month old with a cranial vault reformation with eyes swollen shut and seeming to be in a lot of pain, and a 13y come in with new onset diabetes, lots of teaching, and q1h CBG's all night. Pt swung from 490's to 50's! Then at the end of shift one of the other patients started seizing (4m), so I jumped right in to help with that. He had just had a VP shunt placed, and it didn't seem to be working.
My preceptor is great, she's 24 and planning a wedding. Her fiancé plays minor league baseball and he's in California, so she plans these crazy schedules so she can go see him. It's going to be crazy following her schedule for the next 6 weeks. But, everyone there seems nice. I dropped an NG tube on someone else's pt, they called me over so I could get it checked off.
Anyway, all in all it was a good start.
