June 10, 2010, 3:05 pm
Capping Day!
A joyous occasion!
So…why are half the women ticked off?
(Did they realize their cap looks like used gauze?)
And the one getting capped? There is one of those in every class.
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Change of Shift is up at first-time-host NursesNetwork.com! Katie did a great job of putting the edition together, many thanks to all who submitted (and those who are surprised to find that a little birdie submitted for you!).
The next edition is at Digital Doorway with Keith. Submissions can be sent to “nursekeith at gmail dot com”.
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Emergiblog has been on a pseudo-hiatus.
It wasn’t intentional. I was having a mid-blog crisis.
All of a sudden, I seemed to have lost my “voice”.
It wasn’t blog burnout.
The ideas were there.
So…why did it feel like I needed four gallons of BlogLytely to get a single post initiated?
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The crisis stems from what I want Emergiblog to be. Or what I think it should be. Or what I think it is supposed to be.
I feel like I’m “supposed” to write about serious nursing topics; perhaps that came from being exposed to so many new nursing experiences in my BSN program. Maybe it came from thinking Emergiblog would be seen as a type of serious professional writing by grad schools.
(Trust me, it wasn’t.)
Every post felt like it should to be in APA format, with research and references.
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Then I graduated with my BSN.
Imagine me as Wile E. Coyote over there and the Road Runner as graduate school.
Not getting accepted was my “gravity lesson”.
It made me question every thing about myself. My career, my goals, my ability to write…especially my ability to write. The one asset I thought I had wasn’t good enough to get me where I wanted to go.
It spilled over into the blog. I started to over-think everything I wanted to post. Was it good, was it bad, was it appropriate, was it silly, was it stupid, was it….perfect?
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Well, it’s all that and more!!!!!! (Except for the “perfect” part…)
It’s just taken me a little while to figure that out, and I think I’ve gotten my “voice” back.
But it makes me wonder…
Many of us have been blogging for 3, 4 or 5 years.
Have you had a “mid-blog crisis”? Have you lost your “voice”?
How did you get it back?
All I know is thinking I was blog toast had me pretty anxious.
Blogging is a huge part of my life.
I’m not ready to go gentle into that good last post.
Not for a long, long time.
May 19, 2010, 1:31 pm
Found this pic in the Library of Congress collection.
Perhaps this was a “Nurses Week” gift: a ping pong table in the break room!
This looks like a combination of ping pong and marital arts (Tae Kwon Pong?).
Either way, who plays ping-pong in their cap?
Nurse Ratched has discovered the same LOC collection.
Not that I have to use them before she does….
But it’s more fun if I do!
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Change of Shift is up at The Muse, RN! Many thanks to our “muse” for hosting a great edition!
The host for May 27th will be Nurse Teeny at The Makings of a Nurse.
Submissions can be sent via Blog Carnival or to “nurseteeny at gmail dot com”.
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Congratulations on your new job!
For the next six weeks (or so), you will be center stage, in the spotlight.
The play is called “Employment”, the audition is called “Orientation”.
You may embark on a long, successful engagement, or you could go dark on opening night.
Your audience decides.
Your audience = your colleagues.
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Let’s face it: orientation is all about evaluation. Your actions directly affect whether or not you are successful in keeping your new role. I’ve seen many an orientation turn into a “dys-orientation”.
How can you tell a successful orientation vs. a “dys-orientation”?
- Orientation: You’re the first to get up and the last to sit down.
- Dysorientation: You think the night shift is for relaxation and spend the down time texting, reading five-year-old editions of Better Homes and Gardens and snoozing. At the desk.
- Orientation: You realize the only way you will get the routine of the department is to be responsible for patients. A slow shift means you have to take the patients that do come in to get that experience.
- Dysorientation: You pout when it is suggested that you take those patients, even if they are coming in only once an hour with simple chief complaints.
- Orientation: You document your nursing care clearly and legibly.
- Dysorientation: You think scribbling “IV” in the narrative is enough.
- Orientation: You get to know your new co-workers.
- Dysorientation: You spend time trading giggles with the guys/gals in the corner while you have four charts in the rack with orders.
- Orientation: When your work is done, you ask your co-workers if they need any help.
- Dysorientation: When your work is done, you sit.
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I see an entirely different attitude toward orientation in younger hires. The focus is less on “how much can I learn during this time?” and more on “how little do I have to do before I can sit?”.
“What can you do for me?” vs. “What do I need to learn here?
It’s the difference between seeing employment as a registered nurse as a “job” or embracing it as a “career”.
Have I turned into the dreaded “old fogey”? T. Rex, RN?
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Orientation is supposed to be the time when you put your best foot forward; a time for making a good first impression.
There will be time for socializing or “downtime” activities once you get the rhythm of the department. Time for splitting a slow workload with your co-workers. Time for knowing when you can relax and when you need to be on alert.
Orientation is not that time.
May 9, 2010, 8:51 pm
I would have loved to have seen just how far I would have gotten in nursing with this “Symbol of Success”!
This looks like an ad in the back of “movie magazines” like Photoplay. Anybody else remember “Photoplay”? Or am I hopelessly dating myself with that question?
Ten weeks….
Wish someone had told me, I just finished three years!
Learn at home…
Gee, I guess they were ahead of their time where online classes were concerned!
(P.S. For the rest of you old folk that remember Photoplay, wiki says it folded in 1980 and the staff went to “Us” Magazine.)
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Change of Shift will be hosted by The Muse, RN this Thursday. There is a theme, so be sure to check the site! Submissions will be accepted up until Wednesday evening and can be sent to “themuse at themusern dot com”. You can also submit via Blog Carnival.
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I cannot shake this feeling that something needs to be done.
Something is due. An assignment. A paper.
It’s like having phantom limb pain – I’m having phantom assignment pain!
But nothing is due! I made it! I can now officially write “BSN” after my name! As of the 15th I am a graduate of the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay Program in Professional Nursing.
I actually haven’t seen my new title in writing yet, so I’ll write it here:
Kim McAllister, RN, BSN
Now that’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout!
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It actually took awhile to sink in, because the accomplishment was overshadowed, briefly, by a huge disappointment.
I did not get into the PhD program at Davis.
Talk about feeling like being dropped-kicked in the chest! I can’t describe it any other way.
So there I am, feeling smaller than an itteh bitteh kitteh without a committeh, when what should appear but the reason I was not accepted!
I was “not competitive” with other candidates based on my “Statement of Purpose/written work”.
Ouch.
Not only was I not competitive, but I was not competitive in the area I thought was my biggest strength!
And if I had any sort of an ego before, it’s now so small even Viagra couldn’t revive it.
So much for blogging being my ticket to nursing academia/nirvana.
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So. The next step.
Well, it looks like I’ll need to get my PhD via the MSN route, and I am hoping to do that through Cal State.
Trouble is, the admissions are closed until next year.
Good lord, no school for an entire year?
What the hell am I supposed to do with myself?
They say when God closes a door, He opens a window.
The life of a NASCAR groupie is looking mighty good…but something tells me that’s not the open window He has in mind.
