Yup...You read that right!! I got to go to a work conference. Some time in April, Dixie called me up to see if I would like to go to 3rd Annual Newborn-Pediatric Critical Care Conference. I wasn't scheduled to work and they would pay the admission fee. I said YES!! I felt SO grown up. I was going to a work conference to mingle with more nurses. Needless to say...I was excited!!
The only other nurses conference I went to was held last year by Primary Children's and it was on Bereavement in the NICU. It was an amazing conference. You would think with having a dad who deals with death on a regular bases because he owns mortuaries, I wouldn't of learned that much. But I learned ways to handle death and how to communicate with the parents. I always joke with my dad about how he is in the business of death and I am in the business of life. Anyway...it was SO much better going as a nurse who works in the NICU instead of a student nurse aspiring to work in the NUCU.
It was SO fancy!! And they didn't hold back on the food. Before the conference evens started we were giving breakfast complete with eggs, sausage, hash-browns, muffins, and your choice between orange or berry juice. YUM!! Then for lunch...you can just look at the picture below. And of course we needed candy to snack on and soda to drink during the different speakers. I am pretty sure I gain 10lbs just from that day.
So for the actual conference and speakers...some I really liked and others were just a tad bit over my head. I had to keep reminding myself that I have only been a NICU Nurse for 4 months. I just have high standards for myself. :) The day overall was great. I got to spend time with Dixie, Lauralyn, and Barb. It was great spending time with them and learning more about them.
Just an update on work...
Work has been going well. So far no complaints by either me or my boss. Actually...call offs aren't the best. We have had a low low low census. Which means more and more nurses are being called off. I know on the surface it sounds great...but when your paycheck comes, it isn't so great. Plus, you try to sleep during the day to prepare for your night shift and then you get a phone call after you have already napped...Let's just say it messes with your sleep schedule. Since my time here, I oriented on days first and then nights last because I was hired to work nights. I stayed there for a month until they needed me to pull me to nights to hold some one's spot who would soon be changes to days permanently. So I went to days for 4 weeks. Then I went to nights to stay permanently. There are positive and negatives for working days and nights. I can't decide which one I like more.
Days:
+ Love the people. They tend to be more anal and go-getter's like I am.
+ Get to work with the doctors and nurse practitioners. They know who I am instead of a voice on the other end of the phone at 3 AM.
+ Changes in patient care. The docs and NNPs normally come by and do rounds during the day and make changes to the patient plan of care. I love thinking of the next step for the infants to help get them out the door.
+ Learning. I love picking the docs and NNPs mind and ask them why they are making changes. It teaches me whats acceptable and whats not. I feel like I just learn more. There are more opportunities for growth in knowledge.
+ TPN/Line Changes. These are considered a sterile technique, so I get to wear sterile gloves. I can't help but smile and think of all the tv shows with '"nurses" or "doctor" who don on their sterile gloves. I just feel so cool and like a nurse.
+&- Visitors...they can be bittersweet. It can be so fun discovering the different personalities and backgrounds of the parents and other visitors. You can really develop a trusting relationship. But on the downside...it takes more time. You are teaching, reassuring, and helping them when sometimes it could just be easier to do it yourself. You really have to learn time management with you are balancing three different parents. But there are the frequent flyer parents who could do your job better than yourself sometimes. ;) They come in change the diaper, take the temp, move the sat probe, warm the bottle, feed the baby, burp the baby, swaddle the baby, and then place the baby back in the crib when they are done. During this, you are just checking in to make sure they are good or if they need anything. Sometimes you pray to have these parents because your day has been crazy busy. So this can definitely be a positive and/or a negative.
- I HATE 5AM when my alarm clock is going off. That is if I have checked it 20 times before I went to bad and every hour following that through the night until it proves to that it does work. I was lucky to get 5 hours of sleep when I worked nights...LUCKY. I have never been a morning person. Let along be a early morning person. This was a BIG challenge.
- Less Pay. I make ~$2 less on weekdays and ~$4 on weekends. If you are wondering...that is a big difference in the total on your paycheck...BIG difference. I was lucky to have some savings by the end between rent, loan, tithing, medical insurance, eye insurance, auto insurance, gas, food, and this little thing called taxes. (By the way...looking at that list reminds me that I am not this little girl just starting off in the big world wondering what I am going to do with my life. Instead I have a job and now I have tons of responsibilities. Even though it isn't fun to see the money go, I do enjoy the accomplishment of being able to take care of myself).
Nights:
+ More Pay = More Savings
+ More Sleep = Happy Me. I am blessed to be able to come home after a night shift and sleep. I don't have a husband or a baby to worry about. I get to come and sleep until my next shift or when I am ready to wake up when I don't work.
+ Calmer. There isn't as much ciaos going on during the nights. Some parents will come in and feed but we encourage them to sleep while they can and for the moms to recover. This is something we can help them with. The only time docs or NNPs are in is when there is an emergency.
+ Admits. There aren't any inductions at night. They all take place in the morning. If an induction isn't progressing or goes south...the timing tends to land on Night Shift (actually during Shift Change). And of course...some babies like to grace us during the middle of night through crazy circumstances. Granted this could all still happen on days, but I feel like you see it typically more on nights. So this gives me the ability to learn, observe, grow, and participate.
+ Labs. They are drawn on night shift in the wee hours of the morning. With this some times comes the ability to try for an IV. They might have SO many labs, it is just easier to do a veni pucture than squeeze their heel for hours. I feel like a lot of night people are great at IV because they have the opportunity to try more often and learn. And if you don't know this about me...I love the thrill of getting an IV in. I want to be on the PICC team some day. But for now I am just trying to perfect getting the IV into the vein for try.
+&- Baths. Twice a week we get to bath the babies. This can be so fun. They smell and look all clean when you are done. You get to change their outfit and linens. I love coordinating the linens and making the bed look clean and neat. I can be a little OCD and Nerdy that way. But when you are running around and feel behind, it can be hard to find the joy and accomplishment a bath can bring. Sometimes you want to take a wipe and just wipe them down. Baths aren't like they are at home here. They don't sit in warm water and splash you. They are normally hooked up to tubing and sometimes really difficult to move around. So this one is a positive and/or negative.
- Daily Weights. I hate weighing the babies. You have to take their clothes off to get an accurate weight or mess with the really sick babies connected to tons of tubing to get a weight. Now I do understand the importance of weights and the information it can provide us with. But it still can be tedious.
- Two days instead of one. Your shift is the last 6 hours of one day and the first 6+ of the next. You have to changes dates when you chart. But worse is waking up and not knowing what day it is. Or when you work a back to back and you leave in the morning and return in the night and... The date is still the same, even though you just woke up to what should be a new day. It can get confusing sometimes.
- Don't know if you are coming or going...and what I mean by that is you don't know if you should be sleeping or awake. Your sleep schedule is so messed up. Normally I will try and wake up around 12 or 1 after a night shift if I don't have to go back to work for a couple of days to try and turn my schedule around. Sometimes it works (you go to bed and wake up at 'normal' times) and sometimes it doesn't (you go to bed early and sleep for 17 hours. Granted this happened once and I had just come off working 5 nights in a row.) Pretty much...no matter what time it is...day or night...you don't know if you should be sleeping or awake.
- Normal people aren't normally awake. If you have a slow day or take your lunch break and want to talk to the outside world...there isn't a whole lot of response. Even Facebook seems dead for a good 6 hours with no updates. So there isn't a whole lot of texting unless you have two amazing friends who are on night shifts too at the same hospital and you talk to them.
As you can see, I like and dislike both of them. There has been some talk about needing to move some people to days because there are more nurses hired for nights then days...I was considering talking to Dixie about moving if she wanted it until I thought of this pro and con list. And no matter how many bullet points I do...only two really matter...The one with $$$ and the one with Sleep. So in the end I decided to stay on nights. I can't afford to work on days, pay my bills, and have a savings. Which I am fine with. The main thing is I LOVE MY JOB AND I LOVE WHERE I WORK!! I really never dislike going to work. That's a great feeling.
