Observations From A Paramedic

[PTSDtheBlackHole]

I have been a nurse for over 25 years heavy mix of hospital, acute care and home care. There are many rewarding areas in nursing that require less of ourselves especially after having giving so much in our early years. What I would suggest is the path you have taken. Oncology is greatly rewarding. Education in disease management or case management is also something to consider. You have such compassion --- it will transcend in areas of teaching and perhaps have a real positive impact on others who want to learn and who want to change. You can seek the previous jobs mentioned with insurance companies. Telephonic nurse counseling in disease management. Also, what do you do for fun? Sounds like you need to plan much more time for yourself to have fun and enjoy nature

 

[VeteranFF]

PTSDtheBlackHole, I'll consider some of your suggestions. Unfortunately I won't have a choice for a while. I'm committed to my local hospital due to tuition assistance and will have to spend to time on a Med/Surg floor rotation. But when I mentioned to her that I might have an interest in oncology she was intrigued. I've been battling prostate ca. for about 5 years. My PSA levels were basically zero for 4 years but they are now creeping back up to @ 0.2. I attended 9 weeks of radiation after which my PSA tripled. I also spent several days on that oncology floor with my father for end-stage brain ca until we took him home for hospice so she thought that with my background that I would have more compassion and the ability to communicate to patients/family on a more personal level. There is specialized training for oncology nursing that is held periodically but she thought that they could make an exception for me.

As for fun, there's really not much that I do. I've spent most of my time over the past 3 years in my nursing theory studies. I purchased a house 8 months ago which took some time away from my studies to rehab to our tastes. I've finished my theory exams and am now in my NCLEX prep & I'm sure that you can remember how stressful that was. This last year I rotated out to an outlying fire station that is basically a retirement station. We might run 6-10 calls per week. The station that I rotated from ran 60% of the calls for the entire district which averages 10-14 calls per 24 shift. I was there for 14 years. I'm retiring May 1 of this year.

I used to run as a stress relief but that became too hard on my 57 year old knees so I took up mountain biking which I enjoyed very much. The house I purchased is 15 miles out in the county so it's @ a 45 minute drive to the mountain biking trails. My hope is to return to my bike after finishing NCLEX and getting situated in the hospital.

EDIT: the "her" in my third sentence in the above post would be the Nursing recruiter.

double edit: (guess I should read my entire post before I post it) My PSA was basically zero after a radical prostatectomy.

 

[The Albatross]

As for fun, there's really not much that I do. I've spent most of my time over the past 3 years in my nursing theory studies. I purchased a house 8 months ago which took some time away from my studies to rehab to our tastes. I've finished my theory exams and am now in my NCLEX prep & I'm sure that you can remember how stressful that was. This last year I rotated out to an outlying fire station that is basically a retirement station. We might run 6-10 calls per week. The station that I rotated from ran 60% of the calls for the entire district which averages 10-14 calls per 24 shift. I was there for 14 years. I'm retiring May 1 of this year.

I used to run as a stress relief but that became too hard on my 57 year old knees so I took up mountain biking which I enjoyed very much. The house I purchased is 15 miles out in the county so it's @ a 45 minute drive to the mountain biking trails. My hope is to return to my bike after finishing NCLEX and getting situated in the hospital.

I think it is high time for you to find something fun, silly, enjoyable... light hearted being a key factor... a passion, a joy. (Listen to me talking, other than cooking I don't have one, not any more yet... pot calling the kettle black today I guess.)

Particularly because you won't have a choice for a while because of your commitment to your local hospital. You need some balance and a way to destress. Learn it now and it will save you later. Believe it. I have a friend that was in medical in the military... she invested in a big beautiful kite. First time we met she asked me, "You look like the kind of person who might like to fly kites." And the next thing you know, She and I would meet just before sunrise at a place on the beach where we would visit about our week, share a cappucino as we were waiting for the sun to start to come up... and when it did we would fly our kites for about an hour or so. Glorious way to detach, destress, relax, and get some simple pleasure. You can relax you know... you don't have to make everything demanding... and for nursing, it's not advised... you could burn out if you don't get the self care and coping skills down. Someone else, dresses as a clown and rents herself out for kids parties... RN during the week... blowing up balloons and making balloon animals for people on weekends. No kidding.

Find something fun that is funny, silly, and gives you an opportunity to really enjoy or be happy... Mine? When I was hospice, I would take my friends children to a park to "roll down hills". Really. They had never rolled down hills... I told them it was silly and fun and wonderful and they were deprived... next thing you know, we'd go to breakfast and then to the park and all sorts of kids (and some mom's and dad's) were rolling down hill too. It will help to keep remembering, when too many patients, too many critical decisions, too many shifts... weigh you down. Clare in the nursing home... would go to the recreation department get a helium balloon and she'd give our shift report talking funny when the stress was so bad you could cut it with a knife. Ask your instructors what they do... sometimes it's serious, sometimes not...

Rambled way too long... just sharing some ideas.

 

[BloomInWinter]

One of the promises we read at the end of our ACA meetings is 'We will learn how to have fun."

It's hard to learn that now but being with my kids helps.

 

[bravepoint]

I apologize as well for anything that may have upset someone. Was merely letting veteranFF know I understood without him having to explain the specific situations. We had recently had a guy in ER who was discharged from one ER, walked down the road, called an ambulance requesting he be taken to our hospital a little further away. After he arrived and was checked in, he refused care at our facility and was overheard saying he didn't have anything wrong. Our hospital happened to be closer to where he lived. He left our facility and walked home. While that ambulance was busy being a taxi, someone with something life threatening may have waited for an amublance. A few minutes is sometimes the difference in life and death.

I'm only relaying this to agree that what veteranFF said isn't lack of compassion, it is self preservation. It wasn't meant as a joke to ridicule other people. It is a release of anger. He was being honest about his emotions. Because every abuse of the system takes away the care that someone else needs, it is that very compassion that causes a need for an outlet to the emotions. It isn't meant to put someone down. If there were no compassion, no one in this field would be angry over taking care of the patient who uses the ambulance as a taxi. He would have been the easy patient. If there were no compassion, he wouldn't care what patients he had. And I'm sorry anyone may have felt like they were treated badly when they needed help. That should never happen.