Wednesday, May 20, 2015

GRADUATION DAY - MAY 20th

I thought I had posted this but obviously saved it instead!  oops!

Wow, I didn't think this day would ever come. I never went to college after high school. I truly never thought I would one day be a college graduate, but that day is here! I am so blessed to have been working as an RN for the past seven weeks! Love what I am doing and love that I really do love my job! I've always liked what I did for a job, but now I have a profession, it's not just a job. It is hard to believe it is almost five years to the day from when I first stepped foot in a college classroom to walking across the stage tonight. We had practice earlier today and it was announced that we could not decorate our caps. Sadly I had already decorated mine. I was a bit mad and upset. We were told if we wore our decorated caps we would be given a blank one to wear for the ceremony. I posted a photo of my cap on facebook and had a friend comment that this was announced last year at her practice and many had decorated caps. So I thought, I will show up with my cap and see what happens. Personally, they should have told us this when we picked up our caps and gowns, not a few hours before the ceremony. I spent a lot of time and money decorating my cap.


So, I wore my cap proudly at my ceremony and was not stopped at all.  One of my advisors asked to see my hat before I went on stage and told me Looks Nice!


I am still on orientation (meaning I am working side by side with an experienced nurse) so that someone is overseeing my progress and just making sure I do know what I am doing. I attended about two weeks of orientation classes, some which were not applicable since I work on a unit that is completely electronic medical records and elsewhere in the hospital many units are still paper charting a lot of information. I attended some simulation events where we had to 'admit' a patient. I have already done this on my unit several times so I kind of 'took over' this exercise and went way past the point we were supposed to work to. On our unit, when admitting a patient or upon meeting a patient for the first time, I always ask what name do they prefer to be called by. Do they want 'Mr. Smith' or 'Bob' or some other name? I asked my 'patient' this during my simulation and afterwards during the debriefing the instructors asked why I asked that question. I explained that is what I was taught and it is part of our admission process. Out of respect, we should always address someone how they wish to be called. They seemed to like that little tidbit I brought to the simulation. 

I attended classes on emergency situations, on using the code cart, on wounds and treatments, lots of documentation sessions. I was  very happy when that orientation was over and I was back on the floor.