Last week before break but I need to spend the time brushing up. It feels like all my nursing info leaked out over the holidays. I spent a couple of hours today reviewing ECG stuff and will probably focus on that this week in anticipation of ACLS this semester. Plus reading strips is something I'd like to be proficient at since the ER/Critical Care is going to be my thing. Feels great to know I'm down to the last few months!
Things at home are the same but I don't really care. Just doing my thing. I mean I'm sad. I miss feeling loved but it's not like I'm the first person on the planet to go through this, right?
Still reading The Things You Find on the Appalachian Trail. It's been a fun book. Long term goals are great and give me something to dabble in when I have too much down time and my brain starts to wander to places that have no benefit. NO MORE WALLOWING! =)
Okay, so let me fill you in on the most frustrating thing that has happened over the holidays. I started this nursing program on a January start, which put me at a disadvantage. We are eligible as students to apply at a local hospital for an externship which means we follow an RN around and do what is allowable in our scope of practice, get paid for it and get ourselves in front of people who will be in charge of hiring new grads. The hospital I want to work at has a great extern program and is known for hiring only from their extern pool so it's important to get in there if you want to work there eventually. The externship process is open twice a year: in April and November. This sucks for a January entry student. In April you have only a few months under your belt and they are not inclined to hire a Level 1. By November you are ready to enter Level 4 which means they only have a few months to see your skill set before deciding whether or not to hire you so they traditionally don't hire Level 4s either. I applied as a Level 1 and didn't get in. I have worked at this hospital's ER before and two of my references are ER docs so when I applied again before Level 4 (last November), I was pretty confident about getting in. I had also introduced myself to the nursing director of the ER, told her how interested I was and she told me she would ask for my app by name. Again, I felt really confident. There is one person in charge of every extern that gets in from every college. One. That's a lot of power for one person. She basically decides on every nurse getting into that hospital. I have emailed her fairly regularly since meeting her at new student orientation last January. I wanted to keep my name in front of her because I really want to work for this hospital. I interviewed with her at the end of November and thought it went well. The orientation for the hospital was scheduled the week before Christmas (what?? how insane is that?) so I revamped my plans to head up north for the holidays which I originally intended to do on the 15th. Then I get this automated email saying I wasn't selected. WHAT? Are you kidding me? How did that happen? On FB I see that some of my Level 4 compadres had been selected so I knew it wasn't a Level 4 deal. I was shocked, my husband was shocked and so were my classmates. I'm 45, reliable, responsible, I interview well, and had great recommendations from clinical instructors, etc. So I leave a message for this lady to please let me know what had happened. She calls me back and first she tells me the whole Level 4 issue. I told her that several of my graduating classmates had gotten selected. Then she tells me it was competitive and was a grade issue. My GPA is great, much better than at least one of my classmates that made it in. I tell her this because I can tell something is off here. Finally she tells me that the truth of why I didn't get in is because I was too eager and it was off-putting. Seriously?? This is like the craziest thing I've ever heard. I have 2 docs and the nursing director of this hospital's ER asking for me by name and you decide I just want it too badly? I didn't even know what to say. Clearly she just didn't like me for some reason and cut me off. The nursing director of the ER tried a few things to get me in but no-go. So now my chances of getting into this hospital are down to near zero. I have no idea what really happened and am very frustrated. The other local hospital doesn't offer an externship so now I'm forced to apply for one to a hospital that's nearly an hour away. I don't HAVE to extern to graduate but it would be great to have a job and get to practice skills and have a distraction from my current domestic bliss (yes, note the sarcasm here). But time is ticking away so I don't know if this other hospital will be interested in having a student extern when she graduates in 3-4 mos. So that was fun. The upside of not getting in was getting to go up north early as planned. That was a real blessing so the disappointment was off-set by that. But dang it, I want a JOB!! The nursing director of the ER is trying to get me in as a pre-triage escort so my face is at least in the ER. We'll see. Fingers crossed. Happy Monday, everybody!
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