Thursday Tidbits…

So, I too quickly spoke re: the hospital in Indianapolis. The recruiter called me this afternoon. We are setting up either a phone interview for next week or I’m going to fly down there in the next couple of weeks to interview for a position in the Post Surgical Unit…

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In other news… Columbia Sportswear is awesome. I wrote about a month ago on how my winter boots basically fell apart as I was walking in them… I mailed them back to Columbia in Portland… a few weeks ago someone called me and told me that they were going to replace my boots… She said that that specific model of boot for that year (‘04) had a defect in the compound that was holding the boot together. Totally excited about what they sent me. It was from the Fall ‘08 line of boots… so, they should be a little more stylish than the utilitarian boots that I bought in ‘04.

Have a huge test tomorrow morning… Gotta study NOW.

One last thing… I think that in general men probably don’t put up with the BS when they are new nurses. Men in general are a lot less catty than women and kinda let stuff roll off their backs. Also, from the male nurses that I have worked with… they seem to be a lot more patient than their female counterparts… Kinda strange… but definitely true.

NOW… I’m STUDYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Buh-bye!

To my favorite (!!) white nursing uniforms. Tonight was my last night of clinical at Jefferson. We had our evaluation and said goodbye to the patients and nurses on the floor… We are finished. All I have now are classes…Can’t believe it’s one part of nursing school is finally over. I am going to cut the patch off one of my nursing uniform tops and then they are all going into the garbage…never to be seen again.

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And then there was one. All the hospitals I have applied to have flaked out except for Hershey Medical  Center. I hate putting all my eggs into one basket but I don’t know what else to do. I’m especially upset about the HR department at the hospital in Indianapolis because that was my first choice. I would have gone there in a second. I have come to believe in my 37 years on earth and the last 16 in the professional workforce that most HR department personnel stretch the true as far as they can…  and, in finding a nursing job.. the same statement is true EXCEPT for the man at Hershey Medical Center. He has been honest every step of the way.. getting back to me when he said he would… apologizing when he didn’t… etc…

The situation in Indy: I applied March 1st. Get an email the 4th. I reply to the email. Get an email on the 5th. This email says: “I have reviewed your application. I WILL be getting back in touch with you in a FEW days to talk about opportunitites for new graduates.” Well, then NOTHING. I emailed this person again on 3/17. No response. Then my mom runs into one of the nurse recruiters at a surgical conference in Chicago. She tells my mom “oh, nooo problem… I’ll have my secretary call your daughter to set up an interview for 3/30″… (my mom is super excited… me: not so much.. knew it was a lie). Well, it was. I email this woman last night… NOTHING. I have tried my darnest (is that a word?) to get ahold of these people. I’m done.

I am excited… v. excited about the Hershey prospect… but also very scared because I’m not experienced and I’m not so good with having experienced nurses blow me off because I’m a new nurse (which, is what I hear is the norm now.).

Ok.. that’s it for now… two tests this week (thur & fri)… must go study.

Ta-ta for now.

March Madness..

I haven’t posted in a few days… so I thought you all were in need for an update:

Job Stuff: Had a scare yesterday. I rec’d an email from the nurse recruiter from Hershey Med Center. It was addressed to all “Graduate Nurses.” Basically, it said that they had over 360 people apply for less than 100 open positions. It said that they started interviewing in January and continued to March. That many of their units are currently under construction (ED, PACU) and that they were not able to forsee future staffing needs. Bottom Line: he said that any new positions available would go to people currently on staff at HMC. Sooooooooooo, I assumed that negated the conversation that I had with him 2 weeks ago where he said that I was scheduled for an interview on April 3rd. Soooooooooooooo, (you all knowing how crazy I get) emailed him and thanked him for looking at my application and that I was disappointed, but that I understood the situation with the economy. I was at the mall when I emailed that from my BB. Well, then I went into the Hallmark store to buy my dad a birthday card (yes, I do clearly care about my parents & appreciate all they have done for me… thank you very much!—sorry, that was for M.–I was being rude again–and yes, it still hurts that he said all that crap to me) and this sappy country song was playing on the overhead speakers and I just started balling when I was looking at the cards. This woman turns around and asks if I’m crying because of the song because it always makes her cry also…  long story short… she’s a nurse & I told her my story… the owner of the store is a retired nurse and she overhears… it was like therapy. Well, to make me feel better I ended up buying a new Vera Bradley bag (it’s Purple Punch for those who care!). I can’t wait to use it!  35 minutes later, I get an email back from the nurse recruiter. He said that my interview was still on until I hear otherwise… He said that the Neuro unit is still hiring! Thank Goodness for that.

School News: I hate it. I sooo want to be finished. I dread going to school now. Just dread it. I don’t know if there is even one person I will keep in touch with after I graduate. Which is sad… but it’s so different now. My mom STILL keeps in touch with her nursing school classmates & she graduated from school in 1963. Maybe it’s because I’m almost 10-18 years older than most of my classmates…

Chicago News: Flying back home next week (3/27-3/31). Looking forward to it. I’m having dinner with a man that I went to high school with (well, he wasn’t a MAN back then..well, he was a man…but a young man…who I really didn’t talk to). We reconnected through Facebook. He’s taking me to a Winery in the Chicago suburbs. It should be fun. I’m going to bring my Vera Bradley bag!

Ok guys.. that’s about it.

Ta-ta for now.

Bored.

It’s Saturday afternoon and I’m watching the OSU-Michigan State basketball game. I need to complete 750 NCLEX questions by next Friday because I was lax this past week and didn’t turn any in yesterday (due to my big test..250 are do every Friday… except next week where it’s 500). I’m also thinking of studying for my Developmental Psych test a few weeks early.. that’s how bored I am at the moment.

So…because I’m bored and it’s my blog… here’s is the latest playlist I created on my iPod (I know… feel free to critique me on my musical tastes…)

Playlist is called: “Test Day”

1. All I Want is You, U2, Rattle & Hum

2. Have A Little Faith in Me, John Hiatt, Bring the Family

3. You Raise Me Up, Josh Groban, Closer

4. Bach/Break, Steve Erdody &Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Music from August Rush

5. From Where You Are, Lifehouse

6. Fast Car, Tracy Chapman, Tracy Chapman

7. You Aint’ Goin’ Nowhere, Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova, I’m Not There (Original Soundtrack)

8. Red Light, Jonny Lang, Long Time Coming

9. More Time, Needtobreathe, P.S. I Love You (Original Soundtrack)

10. I will Remember You, Sarah McLachlan, Brothers McMullen Soundtrack

11. Latika’s Theme, AR Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire (Original Soundtrack)

12. You Found Me, The Fray

13. Saved By Love, Amy Grant, Greatest Hits

14. 40 Acres, Caedmon’s Call, Guild Collection III

15. When the Stars Go Blue, Tyler Hilton & Bethany Joy Lenz, One Tree Hill (Soundtrack)

16. Jai Ho (loosely translates to “Be Victorious”, AR Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire (Original Soundtrack)

17. Come On Get Higher, Matt Nathanson, Some Mad Hope

18. Breathe Me, Sia (the song used for all the UPENN Health System commercials.. kinda ironic.. don’t you think?)

19. What Susan Said, Rich Mullins, The World As I Best Remember It, II

20. Raise It Up, The IMPACT Repertory Theatre, August Rush Soundtrack

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Oh, In other news… I received an email back from the HR guy at Hershey Medical Center. I have an interview for the Neuro ICU on April 3rd.

Now… it’s back to OSU vs MSU & my pizza.

Ta-ta for now.

Random Post before bedtime…

1. Just finished watching “Burn After Reading” by the Coen Brothers. Ehh…not their best IMO…  Hated the ending.

2. Received an email from Apple regarding the new iPod shuffle… Ok…  so, who was the genius at Apple who decided to replace the really cool colorful choices of the shuffle with a new version that you can only get in… wait for it… light gray OR dark gray? The cool thing about the shuffle was that it was a small square clip you could get in 7 different fashion colors. Now it’s a slim stick (still w/ the clip) but in the aforementioned blah of a color.

3. Is it time for baseball season yet???????????????????

New Doctor..

So, (I know this might break your heart Scott) I transferred my heart transplant care to Jefferson Hospital. There are reasons involved that I won’t go into here… but it happened and is happening. Today I met with the heart guy at Jefferson. He’s basically doing me a  huge favor taking me on as a patient because literally I do not know where I will be in 4 months. He was very gracious and said that he would do whatever I need him to do.

Well, today wasn’t a great day for an appointment. I had my test this morning (84… again, not great… stupid mistakes.. when will I learn–hyperkalemia is tall T waves… NOT prominant U waves–duh!!!) and I was worried about that and running on no sleep (well, 4 hours on Monday and maybe 4 last night???). So, I get into the appointment and the med tech takes my blood pressure… it was 134/104. It has NEVER been this high… EVER. IN. MY. LIFE. I started freaking out silently… and then Penn hasn’t been the best with sending my records over to Jeff (I love how medical centers collaborate regarding a patient’s care–one of the reasons I transferred) so I needed to tell my whole life story of the last 12 years to the transplant coordinator. By the time the doc got into the room I was on the verge of tears… when he got into the room I just broke down.

Everything went well in the end, he’s a good doctor and person (I see him when I do my clinicals at Jefferson).. so, I know that I’m in good hands…

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In other news, I got home tonight and fell asleep on the couch for a few hours. I just woke up at 7.30. Time to turn on American Idol since LOST is a repeat. And, I think… I’m going to wash dishes…  it’s a relaxing thing to do.

That’s it for now… ta-ta.

Did you ever..?

Have that time where you are driving and your mind just sorta goes on automatic pilot and then 10 minutes later you’re like “how did I get here?”… Well, today was one of those days. On Mondays & Tuesdays I’m JEFFERSON HOSPITAL for my clinical rotations. Well, I left today at 1pm to get into the city and to park…  I’m driving and 10 minutes goes by before I realize I’m 1/2 way to LANKENAU HOSPITAL where I work. Craziness. Thankfully, I left early today and was still on time for my clinical.

In other news… the guy from Wawa finally asked for my  number. He asked me out before the Superbowl (actually, it might have been in Dec 2008). He’s a nice guy…has a FT job in the city during the day and works at Wawa some evenings. He was there tonight as I stopped in to buy my 2L Diet Coke (I have a test tomorrow and need caffeine).

And… seriously… there is a steak house in the Packard Building? That’s one of my favorite buildings in the city. If I could afford to live down there… I would totally live down in that building.

That’s it from here… Time to study…  Test tomorrow at 8am.

Scared.

I hate feeling this way. I’m scared that I’m not going to find a job. I just got a rejection letter from Ohio State Hospital’s Medical Center. I don’t trust HR departments to tell you the truth. I’m not 22… maybe they just want 22 yr old nurses…

I feel sick to my stomach. I’m not going to have health insurance after I get out of school. I won’t be able to afford my meds.

Maybe nursing school was a horrible idea for me… Maybe I should have never did this in the first place… I should have stayed in my safe, but boring desk job.

Home..

I arrived back home from Quebec earlier this afternoon. I had a great time visiting with my friends who do not think I’m obessed with God or selfish or self-centered or not caring, etc…  (yes, it still hurts to think about such a hateful email from someone I considered a close friend). It was a really laid back time out of dodge. We ate a lot… laughed a lot….slept a lot…  One of the best things we did… on Saturday Nancy, e, and I went to the Montreal Arboretium (sp??? I know it’s totally wrong…) to see the Butterfly exhibition. Take the best of the Philadelphia flower show and throw in thousands of butterflies flying around and you get the picture. I’ll try to post some pictures a little later…. but it was awesome. The butterflies were beautiful as were the flowers.

I applied for another job. Indianapolis at Methodist Hospital. I got an email from the recruiter saying that she would “be in touch” in a few days to talk about the opportunities for the new 09 grads. I don’t know what to think of her email. I’m so wary of HR people since being fired in ‘03.

LOST starts in 15 minutes.. so, I’m saying bye for now.

Have a good evening. And, when (if… but probably when) I move… will all the local readers join me for dinner or a beer???