When Do I Start?

Graduating from nursing school was an amazing accomplishment for me.  I didn't know if Crohn's Disease would ever let me be successful because it always seemed to show up and just be in the way. It slowed me down.  The nursing program I was in was a year long program, and there was no pausing for illness.  I would have had to start over if I couldn't make it all the way through as this was a technical training course and not traditional college.

But as you now know, I did graduate and so the preparation for the NCLEX test began.  NCLEX stands for the National Council Licensure Examination.  The passing of this test would show that I was prepared to be a nurse.  This was a big deal where tests are concerned.  If I didn't pass, I couldn't get a job in nursing.  I'd have to wait and take the test again if I were to fail.  I needed to pass that test to get a job in my desired field.

 Studying didn't end once I graduated.  I needed to be prepared for this test, and it was of top priority.  The day I finally took the test found me with all kinds of butterflies in my stomach.  It seemed like the test took a very long time to complete.  It did have a lot of questions because it's important to make sure  the person is academically competent.  My nervousness and the time I took to really read the questions and scenarios and answer as well as I knew how made it seem longer.  Once it was over, I'd like to say that I was relieved, but it wasn't quite like that.  I honestly felt that I didn't do well on the test.  I didn't feel that I answered the questions with any certainty.

Then I had to wait to get the results of the test back.  Another classmate and myself had taken the test the same day, and we kept each other posted on whether the results were available or not.   Finally they were, and we both had passed.  And finally there was the much needed relief.

Next step: get an adult job.  I applied at several different places of course, but where I wanted to be was in the hospital.  Thanks to Crohn's, a hospital was like my second home.  And that turned out to be the location of my first nursing job.  My position was on the Telemetry unit for cardiac monitoring.  I would start out on day shift as part of my training, but my position was for night shift which I expected being straight out of nursing school.  I liked the idea that this floor was for a more specific area of health care and not just general care.  I felt like I was doing more specialized work.

What I didn't like was the craziness that the day shift could provide as patients needed to be prepped for procedures, for discharges or for admittance to the floor.  Plus, some doctors (not all) could be intimidating whether they meant to be or not.  And rude.  That could actually occur more on night shift when you had to call the doctor on call who may have been sound asleep before the phone rang.  And they didn't know (or care) that I was a new nurse and would spat out orders quickly with no desire to repeat instructions.  Also, it was hard to get adjusted to being awake at night and sleeping during the day.  My dad worked second shift at his job and one day he took me to get new shoes for work I believe.  Thankfully, he drove because I fell asleep in the truck and woke up at our destination wondering what happened.  It was like I never really slept.  I quickly felt that this wasn't the job for me.

I had another job offer during this time.  It was for a floor nurse at an assisted living facility on the same road as the hospital where I was currently employed.  The hours I would be working would be during the day.  I was pleasantly pleased with that.  I wouldn't have to deal with doctors directly in most cases as their office nurses would be my point of contact, or I would call the resident's family, and they would take care of the medical issue as they desired.  The residents didn't come and go like patients do at the hospital because they are residents of the facility; they live there.  There was a respite option where the individual just needed a place to reside temporarily maybe after an illness, and they needed some assistance until they regained their strength and could return home.  Sometimes, even those people decided to stay as they found the companionship of others comforting, and the assistance they received was a relief.

This place sounded like a less stressful option for my career field.  I turned my time in at the hospital, disappointed that I didn't enjoy it like I thought I would.  It was supposed to be my dream job, but after a couple of months, I realized that wasn't what I wanted.  I moved on to this new job and different area of nursing.