Today was the 1st day of my “educational detail” rotation. It started out by meeting with the NM who’s handling the rotation and all of the displaced staff. I found out which units I’ll be going to, that I could have a M-F workweek for the next 8 weeks if I so desired (which of course I did!), and that I could stay on days (no more rotating to evenings!). I also decided to be bold and ask for tomorrow off, since I will have the weekend and Monday off (Monday’s a holiday). They said “Sure, why not?”, and so I have next 4 days off 🙂 That helped to soften the whole “your unit’s closing for 8 weeks” thing.
The rest of my day was pretty boring. I’m going to be orienting with the charge nurses a lot, since leadership and management are things that I want to develop. Unfortunately, since we had a meeting first thing in the morning and then met individually with the NM, I didn’t get on to the unit till almost 10 o’clock. That put me smack-dab in the middle of finishing morning med passes, completing treatments, receiving report on admissions/transfers, and getting people set up for lunch. Not the best time to come on, so I mostly walked around cleaning up, making beds, asking people “can I help you????” over and over again. I felt like I was just in the way, so eventually I told the charge nurse that I was going to do educational mandatories, and to let me know if anyone needed me. I think she was glad to get rid of me. I can understand – it’s hard to be in the middle of a busy morning, then have a staff member brought on from another unit. And they really and truly did not need any help – I was like a parrot, asking if anyone needed anything over and over again. I’m hopeful that next week will be better.
I’ve also decided that I’m going to work on a presentation regarding hospice nursing. I’m not sure what, exactly, but I’ve been doing a lot of research on my own and I think that it would be beneficial if I shared it with other nursing staff. I discussed this with one of the other RNs from my unit, and she thinks it’s a great idea. We’re going to try to come up with something between the 2 of us… I just don’t know what! All I know is that it will focus on hospice nursing, and I want it to include evidence-based practices.
OK, now that I’ve put all of you non-nurses to sleep, I think I’ll sign off. Today was a better day, and I am so looking forward to my 4-day weekend!
