It begins...

So I started my new job on Monday. Haven't taken my boards, haven't been hired onto a unit, but I started my new job at a children's hospital at a big university in the south. I was hired as a Nurse Resident... basically, a new grad. As a pediatric critical care nurse resident, I spend the next 7 weeks rotating through PICU, Peds ED, NICU, Peds Cardiac, Hematology/Oncology, and step down surgery/trauma.

So far, everyone seems great. The first day was a lot of stupid hospital orientation, sitting in an auditorium listening to person after person talk about benefits and payroll, the credo and mission of the university, etc. Most of the people in the group seem to be really great, smart, people. They told us that they received over 500 applications, interviewed almost 300, and hired a total of 90. 65 in the adult tracks, 25 in peds. Today we had more orientation talks and then took a tour.

I was really looking forward to this part. Finally, getting into the hospital and seeing what each of the units were really about. We started on the PICU and upon entering the unit, I just got a sort of sinking feeling. I felt overwhelmed and nervous-- not anything I'm used to lately and certainly not anything I expected to feel. I'm so disappointed that we're only spending one or two shifts in each area. I had hoped to actually get a taste of the dynamic on each unit; one shift is certainly not going to allow me to do that. Then we went to the NICU, which was not much better...I think the NICU is at the bottom of my list right now. The population is so narrow, with only micropremies and neonates. The unit is very secluded and separated into 6 bed pods, so interaction among nurses is limited. The 7th floor was next, peds surgery/trauma. Nothing special. The last stop was the Peds ED. This is where it all started to feel ok, like I was actually meant to be there. A lot of the chatter among nurses was things that I had heard a lot of in my last job ("I'm gonna go give this bolus"; "When was his last dose of Tylenol?") and that made me feel really comfortable. This is my first unit-- I go next weekend, probably for swing shift on Friday and Saturday. I'm really looking forward to it. So based on first impressions, Peds ED, PICU, NICU.

I really want to try to keep a good log of what's happening and how I'm feeling about things. We'll see how it goes!