Tyrone & Stephanie

I remember the day very clearly that I decided to be a nurse.  I was 19. I had big dreams. I lived out those dreams  and many more. I worked in Central America and West Africa. I held the most beautiful  babies I have ever seen. I have seen miracles performed. I have seen hope given to the destitute. I have seen restoration to the 10th degree. I have  been a part of great things. I have given great care. I have loved and hated my job for the past 6.5 years. I have worked in a Cardiac Unit, OR, ER, ICU, PACU, Oncology, Orthopedic, Pulmonary, Surgical, and so many more. As a travel nurse and float pool nurse I have seen almost every aspect of hospital nursing. And to be honest I am not impressed.  As a missionary I have seen that nursing means so much more. I have come to the conclusion that the “so much more” is what I love about being a nurse. The ability to sit at the side of a bed and actually know my patients. The sense that giving my very best is enough. I can not express the feeling of working for 12.5 hours straight only peeing once, no lunch break, no time to sit,nothing. Pure, constant, hard work with no appreciation, actually over hearing my patient’s family talk about how I am not doing enough. All I want to  say is “I have not sat down once in 12 hours, I have not peeded in 8 hours, and I am shaking because my blood sugar is in the toilet. Shut up I am doing my best!!”

How is it possible that the hospital is the only place one can get away with assulting someone? How is it that  a nurse can be physically and verbally abused and has no right to prosecute? I say these things not to rant but to say I am done. I need a career change. I want to be an expert at what I do. I have moved around so much durring my nursing career that my resume is a mess and while I have a lot of experience, it is all over the place. I don’t want to quit being a nurse, in fact I think it is impossible. Being a nurse is in the core of who I am, sometimes I wish I could erase that part and be some thing more normal and less traumatic.

When we first got back to the States in Feb. I interviewed at Stanford for a job at Lucile Packard in the PICU. The interview was a grueling 1.5 hours. A few weeks later she called and offered me the position, but it doesn’t start till August 10th. All of this time I have been convinced I wouldn’t actually take the job thinking for sure I would score a job in the ER at my local hospital. After working in the float pool  as a medical surgical nurse for the past 3.5 months I have decided I need a big change. This job is sucking the life out of me. I need to be in an enviroment where I can learn and become an expert at something, finally.

I have worked with sick kids before, but not like this. I know it is going to be hard, more than hard. I know it takes a certain kind of person to work in a unit this intense with such sick kids, and I have come to the point where I am ready.

A continuation of Job Stalking #3. Today, there are so many layers of defense(?) when trying to get a job that its really frustrating.  Here are several scenarios that I ran into:

• You post your resume to an email address but they leave no phone number, address, or specific company information in order to follow-up or check on your process.  A lot of the jobs posted now are like this, how

A continuation of Job Stalking #2. If you want to use the newspaper to find jobs thats fine, but its extremely limiting nowadays.  We used Craigs List and many online job finder helps...like Yahoo! Hotjobs where I input all the information I wanted to give and then used the search and email alerts to have the… Continue reading

A continuation of: Job Stalking #1. What where the things that I did to start my job search?  First, go on LinkedIn and sign up, after you complete their whole input process there is an option to download it (your resume, cv) in PDF form!  Presto Magic!  An online resume builder that costs you absolutely nothing! (also includes your introduction… Continue reading

Now that I finally have a job, I wanted to share with you a little about the modern day process and what you can expect. First a little background. Even though we live in Northern California we have found our friends across the states tend to agree with our general knowledge about the 'job stalking'… Continue reading

Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking: Michael Ruhlman I am currently reading this book.  I have read all the other books (that are NOT cookbooks) about Chefs that he has wrote about...that is a recommendation. For me its a reminder of how I started cooking long ago and trying to train myself to be independant from recipes.  It is important to have… Continue reading