Hello world of nursing!

I was sooo toxic this last week! Wahhhh! haha. Didn't get enough sleeping hours, my whole body is quite aching now. But it was all good. I encountered a lot of new faces and got to know friendly people, of different races. I learned stuffs that are vital to my new living.

It was Nov. 27, Mon, when I started my orientation, (We had it in Miami Heart Institute for the first three days) and my feeling that day? - Well it was like my first day in a new school. But there's this Cuban lady Alicia, whom I met weeks before, during my Medical Exam, so it was her who was my first friend and no doubt that we became companions and seatmates. She's nice and her aura just equates mine, so we clicked in an instant. The orientation by the way related the hospital, clinical, and nursing policies and expectations, for that week. They were a whole-day classes and overwhelming as they were, we began feeling quite nervous of the upcoming duties. Unfamiliar equipments, the hi-tech ones, were introduced. Last Thursday we had our class in Mount Sinai Medical Center itself and we had the chance to tour around and go to our respective units to talk with our nurse manager.

Hence I spoke with my co-Filipina nurse manager. She was nice, smart and obviously responsibly strict. I was told to go back the next day and boy I didn't expect that, lol. I thought after a 4-day class, I can go back home in Coral Springs. I was homesick already by the way. So yeah, she let me know that I'm going to begin shadowing with a buddy nurse from 7AM-3PM the next day. It was pretty fast huh! But still I drove back home that day in Springs, arrived late 6:30pm, then did my laundry, ironed my uniform, ate good food ~ sinigang na isda, kakamiss pala! (I haven't eaten real home food since Sunday!) and slept for just 5 hours and a half. At 4AM I woke up and took a shower. Then by 5AM, I was off to go drive to Miami. Great coz there was no traffic in I-95, arrived there in Mount Sinai by 6:15. Never late on my first day!

As I was on my way to my unit, I was relaxed but I was curious on how my day would end, hoping that it would end successfully. I wondered who's gonna be the nurses there. But gahhh, when I arrived in 8 Main (my unit), there's a bunch of Filipinos!!! I never felt like home. They welcomed me to the point that I can't help but to smile and be grateful that I was assigned in a unit that I think I won't be left out. Most of them (the pinoys) were night shifts too and my permanent shift is 7PM to 7AM, so I was relieved. (I was assigned in morning shifts just for the first few weeks.) Moreso, I thought I would be the youngest, but I was wrong. haha! There's this Filipina named Michelle, she's so nice and she's a graduate of Silliman University, and she's 21. Yes! At last, I found someone who's in my age and she told me that there's a few more nurses in the night shift who belong to our age line. Isn't it amazing? It wasn't long enough from the time that we introduced ourselves that she told me that we'll go out sometime, have breakfast or what. My day started right and it felt great!

On that day, I shadowed a nurse indeed. My preceptor was Denize and she's a very good nurse. She really has a good therapeutic communication skills and I was impressed! She handled me well and I've learned a lot of things, considering it was my first day. We had an admission and a discharge, some patients were for procedures and surgery, so my first day was worth-it! I got the chance to observe how they do those processes there. I also got the chance to know how they fax med orders to the pharmacy, how they order blood components from the blood bank and a lot more. We handled 5 patients together, and they were mostly cardio patients in that Med-Surg telemetry ward. It was tough. Well it's because our patients were tough. Mind you, we're handling VIP patients in the unit and they tend to be very demanding, especially the family members. You cannot get rid of them and you must be careful. One of our patients yesterday was a CIA and the other one was an editor in a big Miami newspaper company. Tsk tsk.. First day huh!

As I was pacing thru my work on that day, I began to appreciate more and adjust more with my job as an RN. I feared before that I will be having a hard time starting since the last time I had my clinical duties was March 2005. But nah, yesterday it was smooth and I was doing well. I guess I'll be thankful to my mentors and my Alma Mater. Thank you UP Manila College of Nursing.. Hehe.. But yes, really. I'm so sincerely grateful.

The fact also that my fourth year college clinicals in PGH (2 month clinicals) was spent in VIP ward has been very helpful. And yesterday it didn't create that much difference. Nursing, I realized, is nursing, as long as you have a good foundation. The complete care for your patients is still a total care no matter where you go. Once you have the skills, it wouldn't be that hard. The only difference and the thing that I think I will be adjusting with more this time is their manner of documentation. They have an entirely different way of charting here. They are more concered of medical malpractice and they are more strict with the paperworks. Mount Sinai's way of charting is still in writing but it's more of a checklist type. More organized than I encountered in the Philippines and more comprehensive. We utilize computers for access to labs, med reconciliation, stuffs like that. Also with regards to the equipments, they are more hi-teched. It's my first time to get a hold of a PCA (patient controlled analgesia), haha! As a matter of fact too, when we were being toured in the Pharmacy, the Robot which cost somewhere like $1.5 million, was the one dispensing the medications 24/7. That would certainly prevent significant percentage of medical errors. It was certainly amazing!

I was also amazed with our badge (ID). It's multipurpose! We swipe it when we park our cars in the parking lot of course. We swipe it when we badge in and out. If we don't have money and we need to eat in the cafeteria, we can swipe it and whatever it costs, it will just be deducted from our paycheck. We also have a giftshop and if you purchase over $10, you can also use it like a debit card. You can buy movie tickets also with it from its booth. Ha, wonderful right? lol... But it might trick you and if you're extravagant, you will end up having nothing anymore in your paycheck, lol. Just kidding. Talking about paycheck, I'm excited to get my first one, on the 2nd week of Dec. It's bi-weekly, so when I would receive mine, it's going to be a 3-week salary. YEY!!! Gotta pay my debts to my mom. haha!

Whew! That's it. I know that there's a lot more to encounter as I traverse with my roads in the nursing world, and I'll try to share it with you too. So just stay tuned! =) I'm also happy and very grateful that I have reached this point in my life that I'm beginning with my own career and I'm hoping that it will become successful.