Work

I don't talk about my job too often, but we've had some major changes this summer that I want to highlight. For those who don't know, I am a registered nurse at Children's Medical Center of Dallas. I work in the recovery room every Friday and Saturday night. Basically my job entails stabilizing children as they come out of anesthesia and controlling their pain when they wake up. We generally only take care of one patient at a time since they require critical care in the beginning, and the patient stays with us for about an hour or two. I enjoy the wide array of patients that I see and the skills I have learned at this job.

We joined the wonderful world of paperless charting at the end of May. Most of the other units in the hospital had been charting on the computer for quite some time, but we were still using paper in the recovery room because it's faster. The hospital decided to purchase different documentation software, and with that change it was decided that all units must chart on the computer. It has been a huge change for us. I'm slowly getting faster at charting, but definitely still getting used to it.

The hospital has just completed construction of a new 10 story tower. This place is seriously enormous! They built us a new recovery room in the new tower, which was MUCH needed. Our old room was tiny and outdated. Imagine 15-17 patients on strechers hooked up to beeping monitors, 15 nurses, 4 techs, family members,and multiple doctors all crammed into a small, oblong room. It wasn't a pretty site. Extremely chaotic. And a little smelly by the end of the day! We moved into our new recovery room two weeks ago. It's gigantic and beautifully decorated. We're loving it.

It's been exiting (though a little unnerving) to have so many changes at work this summer. I really do enjoy my job, as much as I complain about having to work every weekend. For the time being, I know that this is what I need to be doing to help our family. We are extremely lucky that I have a well-marketable career that provides enough money for me to support my family's needs, as well as a few of our wants. This job truly is a blessing. Someday, Scott will be able to take over this role, and I'm exited for that day. But, for now, we have a pretty good thing going.