New Job!

I've been trying to find time to post about this career change in my life but have never had much time this summer to do so. I am now a Postpartum nurse! Don't get me wrong, I too, as most mothers out there, would love to stay at home and not work at all, but in the world we live in today a lot of mothers have to work and right now I fall into that category. My goal was to always use my nursing degree leisurely and just work the minimum needed to keep my license while raising our kids and than someday after all my kiddos are out of the house work full time and focus more on nursing.  I know if Jackson and I stay faithful and work hard as a team along with our Father in Heaven that one day soon I may be able to be a stay-at-home Mom.

So with that being said, it has always been my dream to be a nurse and to work with moms and babies. I used to tell everyone when I was a little girl, "I'm going to be a doctor that delivers babies!" After realizing how hard school was for me and how hard it would be to become an actual doctor, I looked into another possibility ... become a nurse. I did indeed have many people who doubted my ability to do so or wondered if I could really complete this goal or dream of mine to be a nurse, but I never gave up on it no matter how hard school was for me. As many of you know, I have done it! I graduated from the College of Southern Idaho and am a Registered Nurse!

Immediately after graduating I applied everywhere for a nursing job! I of course applied for all the Labor and Delivery or Postpartum OB/GYN jobs I could find but I also applied for med surg jobs and any other nursing jobs in a hospital. And when I say everywhere I mean, "everywhere"... California, Texas, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Florida, North Dakota etc. But in the end "everywhere" I applied required me to have some type of experience in that field. I was devastated, crushed, and wondered how I would ever get this dream of mine to work with babies. While I was in school and doing my practicums, I especially grew to dislike working on the Med/Surg floor in the hospitals. It just was not my cup of tea. I hated seeing my patients in so much pain and then me, as the nurse, not being able to really do anything for these patients. I'm a nurse, not a doctor, I don't know what's wrong with these patients when they code or as some of us nurses say, "try and have breakfast with Jesus." I'm clueless and I hated not being able to make a difference as a nurse in that field of work. So luckily for me I was able to finally find a job and start my nursing career on the Transitional Care Center (TCC) Unit at St. Mark's Hospital in Salt Lake City. 

The TCC Unit is basically a rehabilitation floor in the hospital. Patients have no IV's and are transferred to this floor to have extra rehab such as walking and strength training after their knee/back surgeries. I really grew to like it, even love it.  My work load wasn't too terrible and I was able to find the time to sit and chit chat with my patients and get to know them. It was just my speed and what I liked. I love old people! They are truly so fun to be around!

Well then last November the TCC Unit I worked on was downsizing, going from a 24 patient bed unit to a 14 bed unit. The floor was WAY over staffed and needed to make cut backs on nurses. The hospital's goal was to not lay off anyone but rather transfer them to another floor in the hospital that they would maybe like to work on. I of course jumped all over that in hopes of getting a job in Labor and Delivery or Postpartum. But once again, there was no one hiring on those floors and even if they had an opening they were wanting experience. 

So continuing on my search for another floor to transfer to, I was told that the "Orthopedic Surgical floor" was hiring. I was really torn about this and had no desire to transfer to that floor at all. But after much thought and prayer in trying to figure out where I needed to go, I transferred to the orthopedic h5med/surge floor and worked full time graveyards. My Mother told me this would be a good transfer as it would give me the needed experience that would be required when a job did become available on the floor I really wanted to work on. She told me she truly felt this was an answer to many prayers even though it did not feel like it at the time.

The work was okay, just WAY too much! I didn't have that extra time I had on TCC to make a difference for these patients I cared for. I didn't have the time to sit and visit with the patients or get to know them. Plus these patients were higher risk patients. We took care of them right after surgery. It is most often within the first 24 hours after surgery when things can go wrong. I did not like that. I had patients who went critical and I once again, as the nurse, did not know what to do for them. Often I would end up having to call doctors in the middle of the night that weren't very happy to be woken up. Once again, not my cup of tea. 

Lucky for me I had a Braxton just 3 months after starting work on this floor! Yay! I was relieved and so happy to have a baby! I was thinking I'm done! I had no desire to go back to work there. I loved my co-nurses I worked with but just didn't like the work. So as the time came for me to get off my maternity leave and head back to work I would just cry. I dreaded the thought of going back. I enjoyed being home with my son and not having to work. I got use to the idea of not working and really liked it. I also didn't want to leave my baby. I felt it wasn't fair to him to have me gone. But Jackson and I knew that for the time being I needed to work. So Jackson, my Midwife, and my mom suggested that I maybe apply for a job on Postpartum where I have always wanted to work. They suggested that I send the director of that floor an e-mail. So instead of just e-mailing her, I got all dressed up, printed out a copy of my resume and went to the postpartum floor in person in hopes of meeting her and perhaps better ensuring my chances of a job. When I got there, she was on vacation. Another hope shot down. So I just stuck my resume under her door with a cover letter on it in hopes she would still consider me. 

Within a week of sliding my resume under the door, the director called me up and offered me a job! She of course said she wanted to meet with me and officially interview me but she liked what she had read about me and said to plan on working there! I was SO excited and called up Jackson and my family to tell them the great news! Unfortunately because of company policy the hospital wanted me to finish out my 6 months on Orthopedics before transferring. Thank goodness my maternity leave counted and took up 2 1/2 months of the required six months. So I ended up only having to work for another 3-4 weeks on Orthopedics before transferring. I'm so grateful my new boss was willing to still hire me even after having to wait for me to finish up on Orthopedics. 

So I started Postpartum around June 13th of this year. It's been several weeks now since I started working on this floor but I love it! Don't get me wrong, I would truly love the luxury of being a stay-at-home mom and focusing only on my son and housework. Hopefully someday my time will come when I can just work one day a week or even every other week but given our family circumstance at this time I do need to work and I am grateful that I am able to work graveyards so that Braxton is mostly sleeping during the time I am away from him.  I know Braxton also loves his own special "Daddy Time" he gets with Jackson on the evenings I have to work.  

I am so grateful and happy to finally be working on a floor that I've always wanted to work on! My dreams have come true and what better floor to work on then Postpartum?! If I can't be home to take care of my own baby, I at least get to help take care of other babies! I love the fact that I know answers and can help these new moms. So many mothers ask me about babies, breast-feeding, diapers, times to feed babies, what methods work, etc. and I love that! I get to use my own experience to help these new moms out! Just the other night I had a new mother say to me, "Thank you Rachel, you really brought me back hope about breast-feeding!" I had faithfully worked with this new mother/baby all night to help ensure she could breast-feed as she desired to. 

I'm sure I could go on and on about all of my great experiences on this floor but in the end, just wanted to tell people now that I finally achieved my dream of working with moms and babies! I also want anyone else to know that may read this post, that anything is possible. If you want it, go for it! Don't give up and let others tell you it can't be done!

“Work is the miracle by which talent is brought to the surface and dreams become reality.”
― Gordon B. Hinckley