Weekend fun of sorts

On weekends, besides catching up on chores around the house, I often volunteer. This weekend, I volunteered at PrivateU interviewing students for scholarships. It was very interesting.

I was assigned to a team with a current scholarship student, another alum, and myself. Here are some things I noticed.

1. The kid who wanted to major in computer science, really was a computer nerd (nice, but totally freaked out by my interview question I asked all the candidates).

2. Of the applicants our group reviewed, only two of the candidates were boys. The rest (about 10 in all) were girls.

3. Everyone (except for 2) came because PrivateU has a special early admit program to medical school.

4. Not surprisingly, everyone could tell me how medicine was so important and why they wanted to be a physician. Not one of them demonstrated a real idea of what other professionals do in health care, including the kid who planned on majoring in biomedical engineering.

From the description one gave me, it would have been more appropriate to tell her she could spend more time with patients as a nurse, but blowing her mind right then and there seemed like a bad thing to do.

5. I had all of their applications on paper, but was not sent any other details. My co-interviewers obviously reviewed their homework, but I did not. They seemed a little irritated by this at first, but they got used to me, eventually.

One gave me her form, and I reviewed it. I opted out and asked a non-standard question, which they liked, and was not on the suggested questions handout.

Not surprisingly, many more alums will interview more kids next weekend. Frankly, I thought one weekend of that was enough. 

A lot of good kids and only so many scholarships. Now I know what I have to do to get Bubba in shape for college. A whole lot of work.

More to come...

Bringing home the Bacon

Yes, I'm very thrilled that Dahey has a new job, but the manglement at his employer, Overlord Contracting, leaves a little bit to be desired.

Dahey and I met at PrivateU, when his dreams consisted of being an industrial labor specialist. Throughout his career, he has successfully worked with lots of unions, crafts people, engineers, truck drivers, secretaries, and yes, even the occasional nurse.

Recently, the Overlord people were not amused when he asked about bringing home this Bacon, as in Davis-Bacon Act.

So, after the brouhaha in the break room died down, they made all of the employees hired recently come to a meeting. Telling people they will not get prevailing wage and appropriate overtime as dictated by law is really not a good thing, Dahey said.

Moments later, after much fidgeting, and several calls to the Overlord corporate office, they apologized. Bonehead Recruiter made a mistake.

And that is why I love him. 

Nurse as patient? Not!

Sometimes, I really don't like being the patient.

But now, (or earlier today) I was. I had to go see my favorite specialist. Dr. RG has known me since I was this (motion hand to waist) high. He's an international expert on all sorts of weird things in his spare time (usually the not so nice things you might find in a house figure into his work) He became my primary specialist once I aged out of the Children's Medical Center next door to PrivateU. All during college, work, PrivateU again, he'd seen me, at least once or twice a year.

I even sent my husband to him, once he was on my insurance and lo and behold, I find out that Dr. RG has known my husband's family for years because of a relative. We had much joking after that, but from that moment years ago, Dr. RG (who's always attentive) became even more attentive.

When Dr. RG's wife died a few years ago, he surprised me. One, he gave me a hug, because he said he realized that some of his patients (who had been seeing him forever like me) needed one and life was too short. Two, he was, and has always been the doctor to whom I could ask all those weird questions about research and other stuff. He is a font of knowledge. I knew when he gave me advice recently, it was the advice my relative would have given me if he were here. He wasn't, but Dr. RG was.

So now, after the usual checkup, I got a referral to two specialists. One was a second opinion (no bother to me) and another to a neurologist. Dr. RG thinks my problems could be something else, and I need to get them investigated.

Dr. RG told me something else. He's finally retiring. Not to worry, he said, there are plenty of good specialists at PrivateU to take his place. His replacement is nice, but I've decided to see Bubba's specialist. After all, I know he's been trained by the best, because I saw him when he interned with Dr. RG a few years ago.

Dr. RG is going to fulfill his life's ambition and work in a health clinic affiliated with PrivateU part time. He's thrilled and while I'm sad he won't be my doctor, I'm happy he'll still be around taking care of people who need him.

Stay tuned...

Ah, those were the days...

I felt a lot of relief when I finished nursing school. To date, it has been one of the hardest things I've ever done, childbirth included.

So tonight, I raise a glass to all the graduates of PrivateU, my alma mater, who are getting ready for all the festivities coming up. If I were in charge of the nursing school commencement, here's what I'd tell you all, nurse to graduate nurse.

1. Enjoy waiting for your ATT (Authorization To Test). It'll get there when it's darned good and ready.

2. Take an NCLEX prep class with a guarantee if you can afford it. If not, plan on studying full-time for at least three weeks (Monday through Friday like an 8 hour job). Enjoy the weekends to digest everything.

3. Follow the instructions exactly when taking the test. Know where to go and get there a little early.

4. Breathe and count to 10 if you get the question from hell.

5. Do the same even if you get the TV commercial Viagra (Cialis, fill in your drug of choice) slam dunk easy question.

6. Do not throw up when you're done taking NCLEX. Relax and enjoy. You'll have to wait however long no matter what for results.

7. If you have a job, work hard and realize, yes, you really do need to keep studying those things you don't know on your own time. You need to do them at work.

8. If you don't have a job, make your search your full-time job, Monday through Friday, eight hours a day. Three words: network, network, network. Join a nursing organization if you have to (many have new nurse discounts) and volunteer if you can. Don't despair. Been there, done that, many moons ago (and waited over a year for a full-time degree-appropriate job).

9. Use every resource available to alumni of your institution for your job search. Register with them (if needed) even if you have a job. You never know when you'll look for another one.

10. Nursing is hard and there is a reason why (you'll soon find out) many new grads (somewhere around 50%) quit nursing after one year. Think of it like Survivor. Learn to outwit, outlast and outplay whatever madness comes your way. Always wear good shoes and use the rest room whenever you can.

And finally, make time to have a life. Have friends you can count on, in nursing, and outside nursing. Have family relationships of value. And most of all, take care of your physical and mental well-being, even if it means you get your toes pedicured once a month, get that monthly massage, or have that lunch with a friend monthly. Live so that you may have something to give to your patients and your coworkers at work and to the people you love when you get home.

This is just the beginning. Enjoy the trip. Congratulations!