Goodbye Job!

So yesterday was my last night shift before moving to Malawi. I've worked on the same unit in some capacity (aide, nurse tech, RN) for about ten years, so moving on was not an easy decision. It's not just the change in location though. My work in the Peace Corps will be very different than bedside nursing, and despite the many crazy shifts where I swore that I hated bedside nursing, the truth is I know that at some point I will miss it. I will miss writing my name on the wall and telling someone "I'm your nurse". Nurses get to see so many sides of humanity that are hidden from much of the world. They become interwoven in grief, anger, and loss, and are included in the celebrations of small victories. I had never been exposed to so much fear, love, regret, obscenity, hatred, sacrifice, danger, callousness, paranoia, helplessness, and hope as I have here. Now one adventure has ended, and thankfully, it has propelled me to the coming adventure overseas.

Some things that I learned on the floor:

-what a pannus is (and a Fumpus- thanks Amy!)
-to dilute ativan before trying to run it through a 22g IV on a hard stick
-to NOT tell patients that TPA is "like drano" for your line. People think literally.
-to never get between a brain tumor patient and a stairway
-that addressographs wont break the windows but chairs will
-that most people don't realize that oxygen is flammable, and still don't believe it when you tell them
-how to say "I'm your nurse" in Georgian, "I dont speak Russian" in Russian, do a full assessment in Spanish, and how to say thank you in six other languages
-that when you say "I don't speak Russian" in Russian, most people assume it is meant as a joke and continue speaking in Russian...
-to always wear a mask when aggressively unplugging a PEG tube
- that warm blankets are like a crude form of hospital currency
-to wear my hair up and back when doing extensive dressing changes (learned REAL FAST!)
- that nurses running in the halls is always a bad thing
-that patients running in the halls means that its time for them to go home
-that no matter what my ACLS teacher said, compressions alone CAN pop someone out of asystole
-that it is possible to lose two gallon tubs of liquid stool between my floor and the lab
-that nurses are as diverse a group of people as everyone else, and we aren't angels
-that CF sucks and needs to be cured asap
- that running backwards pulling a bed going to the unit is an awesome glute workout

more to come when I think of them. Love to all my co-workers/ friends.....and a thousand big bear hugs to the MoTard :-)


Grace and Peace-
Elizabeth

-
-
-