Our First Week
We had Sunday off, which we spent checking out the New Haven area, visiting the Yale campus, that sort of thing. We hadn't moved into our apartment yet; due to a housing issue, the apartment wouldn't be ready until that following Friday. In the meantime, we were put up in a first-class hotel suite, complete with a huge flat-screen TV and a full kitchen.
For my first piece of advice to potential and practicing travel nurses, always tell everyone who asks (the travel agency, your recruiter, any housing folks) that your dog weighs under 50 pounds, no matter how much they weigh. Obviously, if you have a 150-pound dog, you may want to consider a smaller dog, because you won't get away with it. Our dog, Zuri, weighs somewhere between 50 and 60 pounds. Unfortunately, this was over the 50 pound arbitrary weight limit set by the apartment. It doesn't make any sense; after all, a 5-lb mini turd-dog can shred furniture and excrete an apartment to a premature remodeling just as fast as a 55-lb dog. Anyhow, Jess had mentioned Zuri's weight issue to our recruiter, and the apartment complex they normally put travelers in was putting up a fuss about her weight. So, Zuri went on a Photoshop diet; I changed her weight on her last vet form to 48.5 from 68.5 (which wasn't accurate anyhow), faxed the form to our recruiter, and suddenly we had an apartment waiting.
My second piece of advice is that your recruiter is the single most important decision you'll make as a traveler. If you have a good one, things will get done. If you have a bad one, they won't. If you have a great one, then everything will get done almost in miraculous form. Your choice in recruiter is more important than the company your choose to go with. If you are looking for a recruiter, I would definitely recommend ours, Dee Leon with Crosscountry. Just tell her we sent you over.
Anyhow, we started our orientation that Monday. It was an excruciating experience. Corporate hospitals literally can talk about how great they are for days on end. They brought in vice presidents to talk about the "Y Way"; they had three hour classes about diversity, customer service, all that needless junk. My favorite part was a horrifying video about being a customer service star. Essentially, they showed some poor Downs kid working as a bagger at a grocery store, who through impossibly PC mumbo-jumbo pleases all the customers and brings in tons of happy business. In other words, when it comes to customer service, if the retard can do it, so can you!
So, we endured three and a half 8-hour days of hospital orientation before we even set foot on the unit. Jess and I tossed down $600 for three months of parking, which fortunately will be reimbursed. I learned an archaic computer system that will be replaced in two weeks. Yet, everytime I started to grumble, I remembered the loads of money I was being paid to do it, and that I hadn't had a paycheck since early April, and it all seemed better.
Finally, I found myself on the unit. It turns out to be a great unit; the people seem nice for the most part, and helpful as well. The rooms are big, and it seems quite modern. Of course, having spent the first three years of my nursing career in a single place, suddenly being outside of my known territory (in terms of knowing where supplies and equipment were, the codes of the many locks and safeguards, even where a bathroom was) shocked me a little. Probably the most immediate issue was the fact that this particular unit (and hospital) have paper charting, where I was used to computer charting. While there seems to be considerably less charting with paper charting, it isn't nearly as quick and easy to do as computer charting. A big difference was that there was only one assessment area for the full day, rather than for each four hours. Any changes simply were added to previous notations. That was a bizarre concept for me to grasp.
Anyhow, I only ended up with around 12 hours of orientation before I started working. I had a full 8-hour day shift where I figured out a lot of the protocols and ways that things were done on the unit. By Sunday night, though, I was in the numbers and working independently, although I had a designated helper should I need assistance. Having only a day of orientation felt a little alarming, but It seems like everyone is helpful enough on the unit that I shouldn't have too much trouble.
Sunday night was interesting, but that is another post. I have to hit the sack in order to get up in the morning and go to NYC (the real reason we're up here in New England, to check out all these great places).
