Resolutions

I want to start 2019 off with some nursing resolutions to help me guide my year. I am normally not a person that believes in the whole “new years resolutions” thing because I make the same ones every year and never stick to them lol! This is a little different. These resolutions aren’t about me losing weight or magically getting out of debt. This is me making myself a better nurse. So, here are my “resolutions” (I almost don’t even want to call them that):

• I am going to make a conscious effort to stop complaining so much at work. I mean, I honestly work with awesome people and my job isn’t that hard.
• I am going to join some sort of national nursing organization. I want to keep up with standards of practice that are being discussed.
• I am going to start an NP program. I applied but I keep finding reasons that maybe I shouldn’t do it. I am going to do it dammit!
• I am going to join and actually participate in one of our nursing committees. I always say I am going to join but I never really do.
• I am going to start back riding my bike to work so I can get that first bit of exercise in. I actually used to feel invigorated when I got to work but I stopped because of an ankle injury. I have been using it as an excuse ever since.
• I am going to try and get either my PCCN or my CCRN. I have done 5 years of critical care and I am currently having to do ECCO for progressive care so I might as well get some kind of certification.
• I am going to try and make sure I provide more positive feedback to my coworkers. Everyone needs to be told they are doing a good job every now and then.

It’s not a long list but these are things I am going to try and carry with me throughout all of the year instead of giving up by the end of January.

I am curious to hear if any of you have some “nursing resolutions ” you plan on trying to carry out?

 

 

 

 

The future

What do you think we will see in the future with medicine? We seem to be making advances everyday. To me, that is a great thing. The further we advance, the better we can treat.

I have been a nurse now for eight years and just in this amount of time I have seen medications be introduced and then recalled for some side effect they weren’t anticipating. We now have a cure, a cure for hepatitis C! How wonderful is that? I have seen advances in procedures. I have been trained on new medical equipment because what we were using was considered obsolete. I can only imagine the changes nurses that have been working for decades have witnessed. I would love to just sit and listen to some of those stories!

Of all the advances there is one that I am waiting for most of all: a cure for cancer. I lost my mother and my grand-mother to cancer. I talk to patients all day that are here to get scans to check if their cancer has come back or spread. It is personal to me. I want cancer gone. I don’t want to see another child with a brain tumor. I don’t want to see another woman with breast cancer. I don’t want to see another man with prostate cancer. I wish cancer could get cancer and die.

I have this naïve little hope that in the next ten years or so someone, somewhere, is going to be the one to achieve that break through. I have this hope that I will turn on the news and hear the broadcaster say “scientists have finally found a cure for cancer!”. I keep hoping that the cure will happen in my lifetime.  I am only 35, I hopefully have plenty of years left in me. Come on scientist, do this favor for me ok?!

Story time no. 9

So I need to vent just a hint, ok? Ok.

Tuesday I worked in MRI. There was an ICU patient that needed an MRI of a few areas, after a trauma. No big deal, we do ICU patients all the time.

I do what I normally do, I first look through the chart and then I call and speak to the nurse to see if it is safe to bring the patient down.

The patient is freshly extubated, off sedation, agitated, already pulling out lines, and non-English speaking.

Let us take a moment to remember: this is MRI. You have to be able to hold still for 20 minutes or more so the images are readable. MRI’s typically take a long time. The scans they have ordered for this patient add up to about an hour… An hour that the patient will need to hold still…

Nah, this one shouldn’t be coming down here. Nurse knows this. I know this. Doctors don’t seem to understand this. They want to “give it a try”.

So, this poor nurse packs up the patient, gets all the way down to us and as we make eye contact we both know this is a complete waste of time. The patient is in restraints and quite unhappy about this trip.

I don’t see this going well.

We decide we are going to give it the old college try and attempt to move him to the MRI table.

Oh, this ain’t happening!

The patient starts kicking and trying to remove everything as we attempt to move them over. Needless to say, the MRI tech decided it wasn’t safe.

All of this… The nurse and MRI had to go through all of this because the doctors just don’t seem to be able to wrap their heads around the fact that the nurse knows her patient well enough to know what will and won’t work.

Irritating to say the least… Why waste the time of the nurse and the radiology department when we all know damn well this wasn’t going to work?!

 

 

Step one

So…

I’ve done step one. I’ve applied to a nurse practitioner program.

I’m terrified!

Am I smart enough?

Can I handle this?

Can I afford this?

Is it worth it?

Will I be able to find clinical sites?

Is this the right decision?

This is a really big committment. A lot of my time and finances will be going into this and I wonder if I’m ready for it. I have been bouncing back and forth between career paths and decided that I can do what I would like to do with an advanced practice degree.

Patient education is my passion and I know that as an NP I will get the opportunity to try and make a difference. By working in the “clinic” setting I will be able to try and prevent admission to the hospital by providing care and education on their health. I want to stop patients from being observers in their health care. I want patients to be a participant in their care plans. An educated patient does better. I love when patients comes into my current job and tell me all about why they are getting their scan. It let’s me know they are involved in their health. Those patients area typically in better health than my patients that have no idea what’s going on.

I know I’m doing this for the right reasons. I just don’t know if this is the right time. Then again, when is the right time? I can always find a reason to not do something. Life is always throwing me curve balls. I might as well step up to the plate, swing with all my might, and hope to God I knock it out of the park!