Little Rhody Girl, RN in the ED: Day One

I am going to start doing a series of posts on my orientation as a Registered Nurse in the Emergency Room at my hospital. My last night of Medical-Surgical Nursing was Monday night. It was kind of a shock because I wasn't aware it was my last night on the floor until I got there. My manager came up and very nonchalantly said "oh Sara, you have to go to a class starting Wednesday, so your last night on the floor will be tonight."

"um, ok"

To be completely honest it felt like a kick in the gut. Don't get me wrong, you guys know that for the past, well, forever I have had a love-hate-hate-hate more relationship with my job and I was desperate for a change. But (surely you must know) that when a person is faced with a unknown, the natural response is to be a little nervous about it. I have worked closely with all of these nurses, my friends and co-workers, for the past year. Most of them are my dear friends, and a large chunk of the people I know in this area. Leaving that unit where I was comfortable and felt safe will be very difficult, and honestly it hasn't really sunk in yet.

I had class today at our sister campus hospital which was, well long. We haven't gotten our textbooks yet but we did receive our course outline. Apparently we will be in class once a week until December (didn't think it would be that long but I am happy it is). We will be going over Emergent conditions for each body system, stroke and trauma. Class today was basically housekeeping things and we went over policies and quality control. (you can imagine how riveting those presentations were). I have back to back 12 hour shifts in the actual ED (7a-7p) tomorrow and Friday before I have the weekend off.

I am completely overwhelmed. I feel like I am back to the drawing board, nursing 101. :-) I can't wait to learn more!

Bring it on!!!