Nursing a great career

I get asked quite often why I chose nursing as my profession. My response  “I don’t know if I chose nursing or if nursing chose me”.

At a young age of seven I was learning how to change “cloth” diapers and warm bottles for my baby brother. My summers and spare time were spent babysitting and caring for my nieces and nephews or my parents would volunteer my services to babysit their friend’s children.

My sister was an avid reader, and one of the series of books she enjoyed was Cherry Ames. She enjoyed those books so much that she often tried to bring them to life by having my brother’s act as soldiers and she and I would have be the army nurses tending their wounds. I think that was the beginning of something I wasn’t aware of.

My parents were always busy volunteering for the church or community. Through their experiences I gained my sense of community responsibility and advocacy. I think it was through all of these early experiences that my “calling” to nursing was seeded.

When I graduated from high school I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. My mom had me registered at a Community college to take a legal secretary course. I think I had other ideas and went out and got myself a job working on a temporary assignment for one of the government agencies. That temporary job lasted 10 years. It was the last two years of that job that I realized that was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. So I explored the possibility of entering into nursing. I was 28 married with two children one of whom was only 8 months old when I went back to school full time. When I look back on those years I just shake my head and ask myself what I was thinking.


As a nursing student we were exposed to many areas of nursing. Being a mom many of my classmates thought I would love our obstetrical rotation or better yet our pediatric rotation. Not so, although I enjoyed bathing the little babies and helping the moms nurse their little newborns I realized early on that this was not the area for me.  But because nursing is so broad, there are so many areas one can nurse.

I started my career as a med/surg nurse. I worked on a heavy medical ward where we did primary nursing. It was back breaking work and long 12 hour day and night shifts. After a year and half of that I transitioned into Palliative care which I absolutely loved and did for almost 5 years. I then found that I wanted more, the adrenaline junky in me wanted a little more excitement, so back to school I went and took my critical care training.
My critical care training opened up many doors for me I’ve worked in a variety of critical care environments such Emergency,ICU and now Post Anesthetic recovery.

I have never regretted entering nursing, I think it was the best thing I ever did for myself. Nursing is a challenging and yet rewarding career. I am passionate about health care and an advocate for ensuring that every Canadian receives the best care possible, regardless of their financial status.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about thing that matter”

~Martin Luther King Jr.~

Another missed opportunity.....

 
It's Canada Day here.  Most of my family and friends will be out celebrating enjoying family bar-b-ques, watching fireworks and participating in Canada Day events.


I on the other hand am at home.  I worked last evening and return again this evening. I thought I had this evening off  and hence had made plans with my hubby to take our trailer to the coast to go camping and fishing.  Nope not the case, he's gone with his father instead.  Being a nurse scheduling your personal life can be challenging.  I have been in this profession for over 20 years and being a shift worker I have had my share of missed events due to my work schedule.

My family has difficulties understanding why I'm not able to just "ask" for the time off.  They think it's a simple as putting in a request and it gets granted.  Well not so in nursing.  Especially not so in times of nursing shortage and cutbacks.  Friends and family also have a  hard time wrapping their head around that fact that I have to plan my vacation a year in advance.  Yes you heard that right.  Where I work and in almost all facilities in the province nurses have to have their year vacation in by the end of November for the upcoming year.  Vacation time is also granted based on seniority and criteria.  It's not an easy task.  We have to put in our request as 1st choice..then 2nd choice and so on until you have used up your entitled vacation.  We also have to meet the criteria, that being we are only allowed so many staff members off on any particular shift.  It's a nightmare to say the least.  To top matters off, in the post anesthetic recovery room during certain times of the year we go down staff due to surgeons going on holidays and stat holidays. It's a bit of a juggling act.

It's a very complicated system we work with but it is the fairest system we have to date. Being low person on the totem pole my choices for summer vacation are very slim, and the chances of getting a  statutory holidays off is slim to none especially if you are scheduled to work the early morning shifts or the afternoon shifts.

So here I am today spending yet another Canada day working.  I would garner to guess that in the past 10 years I have worked almost every Canada day!  Last summer I ended up working every statutory holiday during the summer.  Some of you might think, well at least you are getting work and being paid a stat wage. That is true, but you know what, I would rather be home with my family spending time with them on the beach or at a campfire or watching the fireworks at night.

Don't get me wrong, I love my job, I am not complaining about that.  It's just sometimes I wish I could spend more time doing what the average non shift worker gets to do and that is spend time with their loved ones on holidays.  Rather than tending to someone in the recovery room who over indulged and jumped off of something they shouldn't have and required surgery to fix a broken bone or such.

Sometimes when I see the bright eyed nursing students come in all perky and eager I wonder if they really know how their lives will change when they get into this profession. Do they realize that it's not all Monday to Friday 9 to 5 kind of work.  Do they recognize the  personal sacrifices they will be making as a result of the profession they have chosen?  Do they understand the thousands upon thousands of hours of sleep they will lose due to working night shifts and mandatory overtime?  Do they realize the physical toll the profession takes on their body, and the mental anguish and pain that they will be exposed to?  I hope they do.

Nursing is a wonderful profession if you are up for the challenge.  It's certainly not a cake walk.

So here's to all my nursing colleagues who are working today and to those who have the opportunity spend this day with their families.