Categories: uncategorized
Date: 18 August 2004 19:44:36
Today I spent the day at the local hospice - regular readers may remember that at the end of April I had an interview to join the nurse bank for some occasional shifts, and although I was accepted straight away it's taken this long for references, bribes, etc to be received so I only did my Induction today. And I must say I'm rather looking forward to working there, even though I've not done any nursing at all for about a year and a half, and haven't set foot on a ward of any description for nearly 4 years. I'm kind of scared as well, but speaking with another new bank nurse who's done a couple of shifts already, it sounds like exactly my kind of nursing - not manic, as much emotional as technical care, and actually the time to treat your patients like people rather than blobs of meat. The difficulty in doing that in most acute units is the main reason why I didn't stay in acute nursing - the unsocial shifts didn't bother me half as much as having to run around doing twenty million things at once and hardly having time to say good morning to patients, let alone ask how they are. Until I finish my dissertation I'll only be able to do two or three shifts a month (as this is on top of my full-time job), but I'll be able to do more from the end of the year, which will mean that I can get enough hours in to retain my nurse registration (the most important thing), as well as provided some welcome extra cash to offset losing my lodger.
This is the first time in a long time I've felt enthusiastic about the idea of doing some nursing. It will also be good for when I move, I can try to transfer the experience and get some nursing work up north too. Feeling much more optimistic about life than a couple of days ago, partly thanks to today, so that's good. Hooray!