Temp Jobs and Heckling

So here is another temp job/no job update:

I am pleased to announce that although I have no solid job yet, I have been able to use my license. It actually turned out to be better than my original plan of opening up a "lemonade stand" version of a clinic. You know, like Lucy. (points to whoever gets the reference)

Anyway, so I had a chance to work for my dad. He's a family practice physician. So sometime back around the 4th of July we were chatting about stuff and he was like, "Oh yeah, my nurse is going to be taking August off. You wanna come work for me?" I was really shocked by that. I didn't think that I would have had a chance to do any work.

Last week I ended up working three days for him. It was interesting. I definitely was guessing on some of the paperwork since I really have never had a chance to do a whole bunch. Well I guess I have done lots of paperwork, just not the stuff that requires a license. I mean, I was getting to do some medication refill authorizations. There really isn't anything quite as satisfying as signing something only you can sign (with the exception of the doctor of course) and finishing it off with a big "RN" flourish. It mean I think that was the best part. No one could do my job but me. In school and in clinicals there are many other people that can do your job and you have to work really hard to make sure they don't take it away from you. This would happen especially with nurses that weren't used to students. Granted there are situations where letting students do it all isn't a good idea. Like when I was working in the emergency department. Sometimes there just wasn't any time between getting the call and having the patient come in to explain the procedure that I was supposed to follow. But whatever, the point is, I was a nurse and I liked it.

So in a couple weeks I'll be going back to work another few days for my dad. That'll be refreshing.

I also had the chance to volunteer as a camp nurse the next three days. That was pretty fun too. I came prepared for most anything, thus, nothing worse than jammed fingers happened. I was a little nervous that there wasn't an Epipen up there when I went up for orientation. You know, with all the complaints about bee stings and being 30 minutes from civilization, it's bound to make any nurse nervous. Let's just say that when it comes to problems like having no Epipen it's quite handy to have a doctor as a father. So I was able to get one for camp that week and remarkably there really weren't any bee stings at camp.

There were a couple strange issues there though. I did happen to work around a lot of people that knew me growing up. That normally isn't an issue, but sometimes they were caught between treating me as the nurse and treating me as the kid they used to know. They treated me well to be sure, but I couldn't help picking up on that strange vibe. At least since I knew most of the people I was able to make light of that sort of treatment. Just as an example: One staff member asked for some ibuprophen. No big deal right? I said "So how many do you take normally?" "Er, I dunno, just give me a lot."(<-- although it's paraphrased, notice the bigger is better American mentality) "Well I think two or three is a good place to start." Other camp staff that I've known previously: "Awww come on, just give her more." I give her 3. Later I turn to the "other camp staff that I know": "Way to undermine my authority" (<--- the same heckling tone) She laughed as she realized what she was doing. Of course she had meant it as friendly heckling. I don't know, maybe I'm just a bit sensitive, but still, it's hard being a newbie and trying to establish my authority.

As far as finding a long term job, I feel closer than ever. Have talked to a few more people, applied to a few more places, and I'm going to meet with a couple more people soon. Hopefully I'll be employed soon. It's hard to keep waiting though. *sigh*

On a random note I am really excited to be celebrating my first wedding anniversary this weekend. YAY!