Having a patient be really rude to me right as my 12-hour shift was beginning was actually helpful to me today, because it helped me to remember to keep an emotional distance from my patients and therefore helped me to survive the day. Bedside nursing can be rough stuff.

Local Food Love

This winter has been brutal in Indiana, as it has been in many other parts of the country, too. This past weekend my boyfriend and I took a quick trip to Las Vegas, to escape the freezing temperatures and relax a bit. The drinking, gambling, and walking in the sunshine were great, but probably the biggest treat was eating at In-N-Out Burger. Living in LA during a travel contact really gave me a taste for those delicious cheeseburgers! Are there any foods you had loved on an assignment but now don't have access to?

Does the travel bug ever go away?

Maybe it's because the weather here in Indy is dreadful, or because I'm disappointed with my new staff job, but the idea of taking "just one more" travel nurse contract has been niggling at the edges of my brain. There's a computer conversion at SUNY in Brooklyn that's coming up soon; I've never been to New York! That particular assignment is coming up too soon for me to realistically be able to go, but it does put thoughts into one's head.

Tonight I'm feeling like I'd rather be from Indiana than in Indiana. I miss Seattle.

So I've Taken My First "Permanent" Job After Traveling

"Permanent" is in quotes because there's no such thing as a permanent job, right? Downsizing happens, people stay home to raise kids, nurses burn out in one specialty and learn another, and workers leave a job for any of these reasons or one of a hundred others.

But...I've taken an RN job that I have assumed will be a job I'll work at for at least a year or more. For me it's been strange to orient at a permanent job after working as a travel RN. My anxiety level is much higher! When I was traveling, if I didn't like the charting system or didn't feel the MDs were available enough, I could always console myself with the mantra: "It's only 13 weeks!" Now, when I'm finding less-than-desirable aspects of my new job, I'm forced to recognize that I'll be dealing with those aspects for the duration of this job. And there's no "Hey, it's only 39 shifts" to make me relax.

Priorities in Hospitals

One of the truly eye-opening parts of travel nursing is seeing how differently hospitals around the country are run. A friend and fellow travel RN has just started an assignment at a New England-area hospital. She was shocked to discover that although each lovely private patient room in her new facility has a 42" flatscreen TV, the nurses still administer and document meds using a paper MAR system. "Sometimes I think, 'How can all these hospitals be in the same country and be so different?'" she remarked to me.

New job fun: having my millionth PPD this year placed today. Settling into a job will give me the benefit of only having to do this stuff once a year or so, right? If I can stand staying in one place that long!