It is good to work again..

So, I have been at my new nursing job for about a month now. The first week was all just the hospital orientation for all nurses. After that I actually got to go to the unit and work with another nurse for unit orientation where I actually got to take care of patients! For those of you that do not know, I am working on the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) at U of M Hospital in Ann Arbor. U of M hospital is one of the best hospitals in the nation and is currently number 12 overall and is in the top 25 in the various specialties in US News and World Reports best hospitals issue, so I have quite the ego now because of the prestige that comes with this institution. Our unit specializes in transplants and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) which is something that acts as an outside lung to oxygenate the blood for people with failed hearts and lungs. It can be used while waiting for a new organ or just to give the organs a rest. The MD that used to be the director of our unit and just retired, Dr. Bob Bartlett, invented ecmo. That is pretty cool. Additionally, the EKG was invetnted at U of M hospital so there is a lot of history of medical excellence here! ECMO is a specialized nursing thing that you have to work up too like continuos dialysis (CRRT) which are two things I plan on working up to.

The one thing that I have to get used to is all of the med students, there are a lot of them and they are mostly cute men. I get shy around cute men so I have to work on that. I also had to join a nursing union for the state ($589 a year) which I was handed a 2 inch thick rule book for. Eric and I also cannot have babies for at least 2 years if I want to get paid maternity leave and I want to keep my job. I could in 1 year with the federal law that lets you keep your job for children for a small amount of time and I would still get benefits paid. You would think that a hospital would understand maternity and that they would not call it short term disability! Oh well, that sounds good to me. We can save all of the money I am making now and go on a few more trips before babies come.

I also have to get used to seeing all of the dark blue with the big yellow M's on them. I went to Michigan State University, so it is weird to see our rival colors everywhere. I bought an MSU scrub top, MSU pens and I have an MSU license plate :) This new job has made me realize how childish college rivalries are, ecspecially when some person is a die hard fan and they never went to the school. I don't get why people get so crazy and freaky when the two schools play sports. Here we live in a state with two great universities and we should be rooting for both and their strengths. Fuck sports! Football never saved a persons life or invented a great new cancer drug, which both schools have done with the research they have done. I am officially a fan of both schools and I plan on buying some U of M tops to wear to work and I will wear them proudly;) (Thus concludes my rant...)

Last Friday I had my first almost code. In basic CPR and in nursing you are always taught to remember your abc's, meaning airway, breating and cardio. These go in the order of importance. You need an airway in order to breath and if you do not have breathing, no sense in helping the heart if the blood is not being oxygenated. Anyways, my preceptor and I had a patient with a very delicate airway and was on a ventilator. Let's just say that the airway was lost because her trachea collapsed so I saw her oxygenation numbers dropping and they finally had to slice open her neck and give her a tracheostomy. They started it there at the bedside to get her air and then we had to rush her to the Operating Room. It was very exciting and my adrenaline was pumping. I was new so I just ran for things the docs needed. It all worked out in the end though and she made it through. I love the ICU!!