I started taking care of patients on July 2nd and it has been so much fun! It's also been overwhelming and challenging, but mostly fun :) It is so surreal to finally be experiencing the career I've always dreamed of, and practicing in the unit I've always wanted to work in.
I specifically remember being a 7th grader and writing 3 short term and 3 long term goals during the first week of school. I don't remember any of my short term goals, but my long term goals were 1. Go to college, 2. Be a mom someday, and 3. Be a Neonatal Nurse. Other than loving babies, I don't know what spurred me to set that goal when I was 13.
My senior year of high school, I still had dreams of becoming a NICU nurse. By then, labor and delivery was interesting to me too. We had a program called "COOL Week" (Career Opportunities on Location) in our school district. We got to pick our dream career and go on location for a few days to experience what the job entailed. I was able to go to a Level 3 NICU in downtown Austin at Brackenridge Hospital to follow a nurse. It was incredible! I absolutely fell in love with those babies, the compassion the nurses showed to the families, and the peaceful, dark environment the NICU was. After those 2 days, I was sure I wanted to accomplish my goal.
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| Megan and me with our new RN badges! |
Working at UMC's NICU has been amazing. I feel so blessed to have had the chance to be a nurse-tech in the same unit; I am more comfortable there than if I started fresh as a graduate nurse. The people I work with are great, and that makes going to work fun. One of my proud moments was starting an IV on a baby on the first stick, while the dad was in the room! I was so so excited! Talk about pressure! :)
I have been learning to take care of "growers" who are bigger babies learning to eat and growing/or getting antibiotics, and "intermediates" who are more critical babies with respiratory difficulty, prematurity, and lots of other potential problems. That has lasted about 4 weeks. Now I will be on my own for the next 2 weeks taking care of these types of babies! Scary but so exciting to be solo! Wednesday was my first day alone, and it went great! I had several other nurses checking on me throughout the shift to make sure I was okay, which I appreciated very much.
Also, I took boards, or the NCLEX on Monday, July 16th. I had 265 questions and it took me 5 hours to finish. It was probably the worst 5 hours of my life. So much emotion, tension, anxiety and worry consumed those hours! Yuck. I'm so glad it's over and that I PASSED! Praise the Lord! No more tests for the rest of my life! I got my license in the mail the next week. Woohoo!
That's all for now :)
