Shawn and I arrived in Lethbridge last Monday night and settled into our new home, a spare room in my sister Chelsey's house. The next morning Shawn headed off to work while I slept in, stretched then came downstairs to visit with my sister. It felt like a sleep-over. Funny how I've only been married for 4 months yet it seems like so long ago that I lived with female friends. We laid around, made breakfast and enjoyed killing our morning talking, watching t.v. and reading.
And then my phone rang.
No one calls my cell phone.
No one, except nursing administration!
-Why yes, I would LOVE to come in and work on 3C and make money!
The joy of being casual staff is that you are never tied down to a schedule, you make your own schedule but the problem is that your paycheck is never a guarantee. Coming home for the summer slightly worried me because I wasn't sure how many other casuals I would have to fight to get shifts. Thank goodness for sick calls and vacation time because all the money I have made in the last two years has been completely dependent on sick people, 'sick' people and people going on vacation. I actually am actively campaigning for people to take all those trips that they've been planning on, and if they have the sniffles I truly believe they should stay home and rest... and let me come work for them. (Have I mentioned how ready I am to get a position, but first I have to actually settle somewhere for more than four months at a time, which appears to be harder for me than it sounds...) So far, I have been called each and every day I have been here to work. I think nursing admin is relieved to have someone with a completely open schedule who is just dying to get to work.
I love my job here in Alberta, and I love my job in Saskatchewan. Shawn and I talk about whether I am extremely blessed with the jobs I get or I am just easily pleased. I like to think both, because I have truly loved every job I have had and am so sad to leave one behind. That's the predicament I find myself in. Leaving my job on PAC in Saskatoon to return to 3C in Lethbridge. Both jobs are related to surgical patients but they could not be more different. Luckily, I love them both.
PAC is a unit where nurses go to retire. I am easily the youngest nurse on the floor by 20-30 years. It's a fast-paced, high patient flow unit that is favoured by nursed for the Mon-Fri 8-4:30 pm schedule. I love it because it is A) absolute minimal physical workload which is ideal for my back and B) the ability to work one-on-one with a patient. It's fantastic and completly unlike any other nursing job I have had. You take a patient's chart, focus on them and only them for an hour and then move to the next patient. No call bells, no meds or meals to dish out. Just you, the patient, and your teaching/duties. AMAZING.
Then there is 3C: General Surgery. Perhaps I am partial but I truly believe this is the best unit in the hospital but for some odd reason, I keep leaving it! This is my third year in a row that I have returned to 3C from a 4-12 hiatus. It's slightly ridiculous. I always feel like I am either coming or going. Luckily, the staff and the routine is the same and it felt like no time had passed. Something I had missed is the stories you come home with; the slightly-crazy patients, the survival stories, the medical saves, etc. I have been back for only 4 shifts and I already have more stories in those 4 shifts than 2 months in Pre-Assess. I have missed that and am so glad to be back.
Is it too much to ask to just move all of 3C to Saskatoon?
Too much?
I thought so... Pity.
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