ShaNae Noyce, RN

Yes, I know I used that title for a previous post.

I now have 3 days of real, full-time work as a nurse under my belt though, so I guess it really is official now.

Since I am on an internship program, we are going to take our sweet time (3 months) to learn the ropes. I am very happy about that. So far, the team training us has been nothing but nice, and they are always stopping to make sure we understand things. They are never at all condescending if we don't know something or if we never saw it in clinical or whatever. I learned how to be a nurse in an 11 month nursing program, and it ended 6 months ago. Needless to say, I feel less than confident about a lot of my knowledge and skills.

This week has been mostly orientation. Tuesday we shadowed on various units so we could see a lot of the paperwork in action. Today we went over how to actually fill a lot of it out. I believe we will start on med passes next week.

The great thing about orientation is that I am working a regular schedule. I work 7-3:30 Monday through Friday. I still have my evenings and weekends, so I can actually see my husband during the 2nd half of the week when he isn't gone all day at work and class. That won't last. Once I have my regular assignment, there is little to no chance that I will get a day shift position, and I will definitely be working some weekends. That's okay too, but it's nice to dive back in to things with a more predictable schedule. The most difficult part of this week has been getting up early. I haven't had to do that in months. Almost as difficult has been going to bed at a decent time so I actually get enough sleep.

I'm still trying to keep up on my bargain hunting, although I have been working out shortcuts to make it all a little faster over the past couple weeks in anticipation of starting work. It is a fun little hobby.

Zack has been busy. He has decided to keep working full time while attending grad school full time, and he still has Tuesday nights and many hours on Sunday that he devotes to his church calling. That leaves a bit of time for homework, and that about wraps up his week. Despite both of us being busy, I can say that I am so very happy to have a routine again. We'll see how long that lasts. A couple of months of getting up at 5:45 AM might leave me wishing for the boring ol' days again. :)

I know, this has been a pretty dry and boring post. We have a lot going on, but nothing that's really exciting to tell about.