The one where I learn about my new job

Been getting busy around here with the new job and all, I orient 3 days in a row, get home at about the time I need to be going to bed, and haven't been able to eat dinner for 3 nights.  Mostly because one of the nurses I'm orienting with appears to not need to eat!

They forgot the red pinpoint area for western Colorado!

On the plus side, some things are coming back to me, so I don't feel like a total idiot, buuuut, I've realized that I have been out of ICU nursing long enough for things to change enough that I keep coming across stuff that makes me exclaim, "WHAT?!" every other sentence or so.

Apparently, my new ICU specializes in neurotrauma.  Cool enough but....I don't.  My last major ICU experience was in a medical-surgical ICU, and we specialized in open heart surgeries, no major trauma.

My big patient of the weekend?  Previous head trauma meth addict who head-dived off of the retaining wall on the front steps of our hospital 20 feet down to the concrete below.  Now he's a quadriplegic.  All caught on security video.

My motto is:  If you're gonna do something, by god, do it right!

Sexy.

Like me, I'm trying to do it right.  I realized that a lot of my skills have diminished, or left my brain outright, so I got myself a giant critical care nursing tome, and will be studying up in the hopes that I will feel like I actually know what I'm doing.  Because, let's face it, I feel like I am having to re-learn all of my ICU skills and pathophysiology all over again!

Never fear, I will persevere!


Remember, it's just a ride.