The countdown begins. I start work at the hospital in less than one week. Next Wednesday, 8 AM, I report for my orientation. I’m having some mild anxiety – punctuated with some anxiety dreams where I am babysitting for children (unrelated to ER nursing) and I lose them, or they get hurt or I generally screw up.
I’m nervous they are going to do a lot of “Quick! You – student nurse – what does this lab value mean? What is the normal range? What IV fluids should we give to this patient? Isotonic? Hypotonic? Hyper? Quick, go, go, go.”
I think it just hit me that it is very possible that in less than a week, I am going to be standing in an ER and might see some really . . . well, fucked up shit.
And I REALLY hope the nurses are not too tough on me. I know how some seasoned (and jaded) nurses can be around fresh meaty nurslings – brutal. And I’m pretty easy to make fun of and VERY gullible, which makes my meaty insides stink all the more delicious for the biting.
On a totally different side note – There is HARDCORE porn on Big City Public Access right now. Serious close-up shots – genitals – sounds, the works. It’s only 11:30 PM and while I support pornography, I don’t think I like it on public access. Plus, it is unbelievably raunchy and appears to take place at the local HoJo. This is the same channel that also shows “Dinglebob and his Dinosaur Friends Entertain the Local Nursing Home Residents” in the morining and “Reverend Wallace and Friends” on Sunday.
Damn big city and it’s crazy TV.
At least your ripe meaty insides are tempting seasoned nurses in an ER. I might as well sign on with Dinglebob the way my student career has been going.
i also have those losing other people’s children dreams! maddening. also, i suggest you get one of those tiny pocket ER nursing thingies that gives you all the cheat sheets so if you get called out you can just pretend you are super busy or you just heard someone call you across the hall, then run to the bathroom and check your little book, and return triumphant with all the right answers. by the time you’re done with your externship you’re probably going to have a lot of that stuff ingrained in lasting memory. real memory, not just the made-up scenarios the rest of us 15-month fools are making due with…