MY STINT AT FAIRVIEW
Posted by Karen on May 09 2008
Grace at Mama Rehema asks a great question….
Did you have a job before you got married and what was it? did you like it?
Thanks for the question, Grace. The quick answer is yes and yes-and-no.
I graduated from nursing school in May of 1990 (no old jokes, Awesome Mom). I started working at Fairview General Hospital on the pediatric unit. I had worked at Fairview for awhile during the summer and on school breaks, but now I was an R.N. Now it was different. I had to actually be responsible!
My job was unique in that I didn’t only work in pediatrics. See, peds gets pretty slow in the summer. So I was hired as a pediatric/maternity float. So that meant when peds was slow and maternity was busy, I was always the first one to get pulled. I didn’t mind that so much if they let me work in the nursery with the babies, but sometimes I had to work with the postpartum moms. Having never given birth or nursed, well, I wasn’t much help to these women. I’m sure they were thinking, “If I can just stay alive through this peds nurse’s shift, I’m golden!”
Anyway, back to peds. We were just a general peds unit so we saw a big range of injuries and diseases. From broken femurs to pertussis to new onset diabetes to appendectomies. And the ages of kids went from newborn up to 18, so you just never knew what the day was going to have in store.
My coworkers were pretty nice. There wasn’t a lot of cattiness amongst the staff which was great. They were all ready and willing to lend a hand if someone needed something. I mainly worked evenings, but in the winter it wasn’t uncommon for me to pull a double and work from 3pm until 7am. Ah, to be young again. Now that sort of schedule would probably kill me!
Did I like the job? Yes. The kids weren’t critically ill. The things I saw were pretty much bread and butter pediatrics which was a great way for a new nurse to start out and gain confidence. Did I like the job? No. I was newly engaged and Mike was living 2 hours away. I’m sure if he had been closer I wouldn’t have worked as much overtime though!
That being said, of all my nursing jobs, it was probably my favorite one.
on 09 May 2008 at 9:02 am 1 reba said …
its funny when i just delivered my daughter there was a nursing student there shadowing and i felt bad for her. she was terrified poor thing, since it was my second time through the gate i felt the need to reassure her.
i dont know how you nurses do it, maternity is seriously gross!
on 09 May 2008 at 9:14 am 2 Carolynn from Western Australia said …
Karen, If you think you are going to get “OLD JOKES” having graduated in 1990 what do I get for graduating in 1978 and I am still nursing !!!!! The last 24 years in Neonatal Intensive Care and certainly did my fair time in Maternity including well over 100 deliveries to my name.???? LOL
Take Care
Love Carolynn xxx
on 09 May 2008 at 10:11 am 3 Awesome Mom said …
Dude you are sooo old! lol! In 1990 I was 11 years old.
on 09 May 2008 at 10:21 am 4 grace said …
This week is Nurses week, so, happy Nurses’s week and thanks for all you did as a nurse. Thanks for answering my question.
on 09 May 2008 at 10:32 am 5 Sue said …
peds intensive care would be hard for me. Karen, didn’t you work in Columbus NICU? More of a “mothering” job as both sick babies and depressed moms to deal with…console…Hard job nurses do…Thank you and Happy Nurses week
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO ALL OF YOU WHO ARE MOTHERS OUT THERE!!!!!!
on 09 May 2008 at 1:55 pm 6 CouldBeAnyone said …
We are not old. We are not old. We. are. not. old.