Project: #ERNurseD; Striving Novice's Next Journey

I love what I do. I know this because even the hardest days,  I am still ready to come back for more. Sometimes I do need a break; a day to sleep in, a weekend to wipe only my own butt, rather than others, and days to see daylight and absorb some vitamin D. The days off allow me to appreciate my own life as I get a chance to live it, and allow me to collect a few doses of energy to meet whatever challenges the next shift will bring.

Close to 3 years in and I feel myself getting comfortable with my nursing tasks, even the unanticipated ones. The heavier patients, while they may be a burden, they still get my heart shuddering with anxious beats in anticipation of an impending code. But I know that even the unexpected can be managed. Do I still have days that keep me on my toes? That delay my lunch breaks to when most people are eating dinner? When my legs beg for a rest, only to be interrupted by another buzzing bed alarm? When my heart skips a beat as my patient's wound begins to leak out foul odored, creamy drainage and their monitor’s numbers ring at me with warnings of impending doom? Always. 

As a Striving Novice, each disaster is masked with slightly more confidence and knowledge than the previous one; but I am still a novice and so for each new disaster I must ask, research, assess and learn. No two infections on two separate human beings with different sets of DNA will be the same. But even as I strive to be a novice, the air of experience with similar medical situations hover over my novice attempts and tamper with my skills that I have toiled hard to acquire. While that air of confidence and knowledge fills my novice mind  with speed in the tasks I complete, it also keeps my mind stationary. Among my challenges as a striving novice is to notice when the tasks begin to feel  familiar; when my ability to view each new scenario as a new piece of knowledge to learn and gain from become infrequent, and the opportunities to learn something new are narrowed. 

I love my little step down unit, I have made bonds with both patients and medical staff, I have honed skills that will help shape the path on any road I take, and I have built friendships that are like family. But on my mission as a “Striving Novice”, I must detect  when the sponge in my brain begins to dry as it has absorbed all the knowledge and experience that my unit’s waters of knowledge have been able to moisten. It is easy to remain where it is comfortable, but my little mind must grow with new knowledge and experiences and so it must venture out into new surroundings, onto a new adventure. To get to the top one must climb, but also stagger on the various lower levels to grasp the other views along the way, making the top view all the more fascinating. I will leave the comfort of my little unit and my nurse family. I will take my sponge of information, love for the work I do, the friendships I have built and knowledge i've honed with me as I once again become the “novice” in another field of nursing. I will be the ‘new girl’ in an unfamiliar work mode, in a new work environment, and with new people. 

Little NurseD with her big glasses and curly hair is about broaden her horizon, spread her wings, climb out of her cocoon, and to learn to fly in another area of nursing.

 Just a few flights down,  the bright lit up letters, along with the tunes of  the ambulance siren, welcome me each morning on my way to work. Its glowing red design has painted some details in my ‘Striving Novice’ painting. I don’t know if it was the influence of the TV version of Emergency room chaos, or the the real life versions on medical documentaries involving the ER, the pictures and discussions i've seen on my Medical app (Figure1), or my large reserves of adrenalin lingering in my little body yearning to be utilized; I knew that the Emergency Department was to be the next climb on my nursing journey. 

Once again I will be the new person, the novice, the nurse; the “Striving Novice”, as I attempt to find my place and collect some more skills, sharpen my critical thinking and apply new and acquired knowledge each day/night in my new role, and in my new era of #NurseD.

 Enter Project:  #ERNurseD.

Some of my fabulous 11e family.