Holidaze

What a holiday season. My husband's father took a turn for the worse and went home on hospice a week before Christmas. My husband had to go, .they have had differences but my huband went anyway. His Dad said something about Christmas when my husband got there but he thought nothing of it. Not knowing or realizing the power of the mind. His Dad hung on till Christmas day, the last 24 hours were agonizing I'm sure, everyone sitting around counting his breaths because he had lost consciousness. I can't imagine. This was my husband's first encounter with death. I can't imagine how awful it was for him because I have only seen it from a nurse's view. As a nurse,I hope for a peaceful ending, the quicker the better. Especially if the patient is unconscious,the family are the ones suffering. I was asleep in my bed when my father passed away 20 years ago from lung cancer. Is it fate that my husband had to deal with cancer in hus father as I did? Is it fate that we both had a parent die on Christmas? I was on my first travel assignment in Denver and worked on Christmas Day when I got the phone call that my Mother had passed. It's ironic. Most of my family are here in Oklahoma for the holidays, except for my husband. It should be a joyous time. I truly believe everything happens for a reason, you may not know the reason right away, but it will become clear in the days to come. Sorry if this post bummed any of you out...that was not my intention. Just to give some incite into the life of a nurse. I worked 8 hours today and am going back for 12 hours tomorrow...God willing. Remember, first do no harm.

Returning to Napa

Hi Everyone, Happy holidays! It's cold here in Oklahoma, they lied to me. My sisters said the weather was nice only a week or two of cold . It seems like its been cold for a month and it has snowed! Plus it's going to be snowing again this week. What did I get myself into? Just kidding. I wouldn't trade this time with my family for the world.I even got a new great nephew out of the deal. Great nephew...makes me sound really old doesn't it? My only defense is that I am the youngest of 6.

As my heading says, I am headed back to Napa in January. I'll be staying with another traveler friend of mine and her husband and their 3 dogs. It should be a blast! I haven't had a pet in 5 years because it's just easier to travel without one. My husband will be staying in chilly Oklahoma to run our store. It's called the Estate Sale Store and we are in Moore Oklahoma. We sell new and used furniture and household goods. Like the name says anything you might find at an estate sale. It's doing ok but nursing pay out here is nothing compared to California. We had discussed it when we decided to open the store and said we'd do whatever it takes. I think I'm getting the better end of the deal...all I have to do is work. He has to go to the estate sales and auctions and run the store and pay the bills and take care of himself in cold windy Oklahoma. It will be an adjustment. I'll keep you all updated. I leave January 9th.
Hope everyone has a great holiday season. Stay warm!!!!

SNOW

Well, who would have thought I'd have seen snow twice already this year. Last year...not at all. My husband and I went to Colorado to the Army vs. Air Force football game early last month and it snowed...it was beautiful but unexpected. Then yesterday here in Oklahoma it has snowed ...unbelievable. It's a far cry from the perfect weather of California.
I did an orientation in the ambulatory surgery area of the little hospital (Moore Medical Center) where I am working prn. It was nice...they don't have a full surgery case load yet so it's pretty quiet. It's bascially pre-op out patient stuff. They come in the day of surgery or the day before and get their blood drawn (by the nurse) and fill out the questionaire then radiology comes over and does their chest x-ray and respiratory therapy comes and does their ekg. Then, if it's the day of surgery, we start their IV and have them sign their consent forms and wait. This hospital currently is discharging their surgery patients from the recovery room, most other hospitals send them back over to Ambulatory surgery until they are ready to go home. It was nice so I think I may pick up a few days there as well.
I will be taking an assignment back in Napa, just 8 weeks to start. With the store my huband and I opened he will have to stay behind in Oklahoma and run the store. I decided on only 8 weeks to see how we do apart from each other. We have been together everyday for the last 5 years since I started traveling...so it will be a transition.
Happy holidays,happy blogging...Remember first do no harm.

Branching out

Hello again, sorry it's been so long. I've been really busy. The agency nursing thing is going pretty well. There is a state run mental health facility that has been requiring some help. I took CAPE training. (Creating a positive environment) It was 2 days and only slightly helpful. One thing they taught was the CAPE hold...I thought I might not want to work there after learning that. It is a way to hold onto the client without them hurting themselves or you and it's supposed to help them to gain control of themselves. I haven't seen it in practice and after talking to the nurses that work at the facility they haven't used it much either. I was really glad to hear that. The clients are an interesting mix and the staff has been helpful. Just goes to show you can teach an old dog new tricks...I am still working at a hospital as well...it's brand new as of August this year. The ratio is 4 to 1 and they are only using nursing students as nurse aides and using them very minimally. I haven't worked there much yet but I'll keep you all posted. Happy blogging...and remember first do no harm.

Moving on

Well, I sure do miss those staffing ratios in California, not to mention all my friends at Queen of the Valley. I highly recommend it if you get the chance to travel there and I hope to be back there soon. Oklahoma is a different story. It's not bad, there aren't many travel positions to be found and the money isn't so great but, it's not too surprising. We didn't come here for the travel opportunity. We came here to try to be entrepreneurs. My husband and I are opening a resale shop next Friday (that's why I haven't been blogging) in Moore Oklahoma. We are hoping (of course) that it does really well and that I can stop nursing. It's a great profession and has served me well and I hope to do some strike nursing (sorry all you union nurses) soon. I'm just tired...15 years is long enough to be taking care of others...now it's me time...I hope.
The staffing here isn't too bad. The most I have had is 6:1 on a rehab unit. Mostly it's 4 or 5 to one on tele and med-surg. Very little use of LPN's or CLPN's in the hospitals. One hospital is trying all RN and no aides their ratio is 4:1...we'll see how that works. Shift times are different, they start at 6:30 or 6:45 instead of 7...and believe me that half hour or fifteen minutes means a lot at 5 am! Most of the rest of the stuff is the same. One little hospital I have been working at still counts narcotics at the end of the shift...can you believe it? No Sur-med or Pyxis....the agony. If you've never had to do a narcotic count at the end of your shift...you haven't lived...lol.
I have been working with a local staffing agency. I get on average $30/hr. they do offer benefits (at a minimal price) and PTO, so pretty good for an agency but they are short on the day shifts so I have picked up a PRN position at a little hospital in the same city where we will be opening our store. That should be enough to keep our dream alive...until I don't have to work at all!!!!
Well, I'll try to keep you informed...remember first do no harm and happy blogging!!!

The Search goes on

We had a few days and took the drive to the coast to Muir Woods. The redwoods we saw were incredible pictures just don't do it justice. I hear the redwoods along the coast up to Oregon are even more incredible, unfortunately we will not be making that trip this time. I have just 12 days left here in California. I have spoke to several different agencies and will probably go that route this time. The flexibility is there so I can basically work when and where I want. Plus the travel agencies haven't gotten back to me with any travel assignments in the area that I want to be in. So, keep that in mind when they tell you "you can go anywhere"..yeah, almost.
Work is going well, I'm ready to go to a new facility though. We had student nurses this week. I love students, maybe because the nurses were so mean to me when I was a student. I remember them talking about hating to have students and how much of a burden we were. I remember them not giving me any information about the patients at all. I remember how scary it was to go into that first patients room. It would have been so nice to have a nurse include me in the patients care. I try to be helpful and teach a little bit. I didn't find the instructor to be too nice or helpful but sometimes that happens.
The weather here is getting foggier in the morning and cooler in the evening so I'm ready to find a new climate. There is some talk of a party before I leave, but most of the time everyone is too busy with their own lives. We'll see.

Got grapes?

Wow, what a grape, I mean great time of year to be here in Napa. You can finally see the grapes hanging on the vines. We got this upclose picture in nearby Yountville. The grape harvesting has started by some of the vineyards. Just incredible.

Work is ok. We have a bunch of new grads in training and a couple that just got off of orientation. They also hired a new group of travelers so there is an abundance of new faces around. I am awaiting my exit. The search for a new assignment doesn't look too promising. As you can assume not many nurses want to go to Oklahoma which would make the job market great you would think... but since not many nurses want to go there the number of travel companies that have assignments there are few. And some of the ones I have called have not gotten back with me. Very frustrating. As of tomorrow I have 30 days left here in Napa. Would you be scared? Not knowing where you will live or work 30 days from now? Think about that....not too much though, cuz now I'm even scaring myself!! Just kidding. I'm fine, I'm used to it. I have faith that everything will work out just the way it's supposed to. More pictures to follow as we will be touring the redwoods soon. Take care and remember first do no harm.

Going back to work

Back to work
So even when it's back to work, it's still better here than back home. Sorry guys, I love being from Cleveland, not living there. Napa is beautiful, the hot air balloons in the sky every morning, sunshine all day, nice cool evenings. I'm even learning to like the morning fog, the longer it stays the cooler the day will be. One of my traveler friends has moved on. She started with me in May and her last week was last week. I totally missed her all week because my sister was here and I only worked my 3 days. It's a bummer, she was really fun. Whenever one of us was having a hard day we would help each other or just be there to listen. Lucky for me she only moved to San Francisco so I can see her again before I leave CA. It's an unusual feeling for me because I am usually the one leaving. Hopefully the rest of my assignment will go smoothly without my friend to commisurate with. It's only 2 short months now,I'm sure it will fly by. I still have a couple of places I'd like to visit and then there's the whole finding a new assignment thing. That usually consumes the whole last month of an assignment. Which is great, because by the end of an assignment I'm usually counting my days. If it's a good assignment I'm counting the days the last month, if it's a bad assignment I'm counting from the first week. So, I'm lucky, it's been a good assignment so far. But, I am looking forward to spending some time with my family. We are headed to Oklahoma next, most of the tornados should be gone by then. Along with the unbearable heat, I hope. We'll see how different nursing is in the plains states and how I will survive without staffing ratios. I must say, it's the best thing about nursing in California, hopefully the governor realizes it.
posted by TravelingNurse @ 11:05 AM

3 Comments:

At 8:24 AM, Third Degree Nurse said…
Love the balloon! Kind of close to those power lines, though.And although I wouldn't want to live in Cleveland either (I used to live in Akron, which was close enough),I've thought about doing an internship at the Cleveland Clinic. Ever worked there?

At 11:43 AM, TravelingNurse said…
The balloon picture was taken as this balloon was landing. I have not worked at the Cleveland Clinic just at Hillcrest Hospital which is part of the Cleveland Clinic foundation. I enjoyed working at Hillcrest. I have worked at University Hospital of Cleveland and found it to be very interesting. Lots of things you won't see anywhere else.The apartment we get from the travel company usually is a one bedroom. We have often asked for a two bedroom and generally have to pay something minimal if anything for the extra room. When we went to Phoenix we got a 2 bedroom so family and friends could visit and we actually had some company. It was so nice.

When family comes to town

This is one of the cars my brother-in-law got to drive us around to the wineries.
This is the inside of Frogs Leap winery in Napa Valley CA.


Hi All, Here are a few pictures of this week's journey.My sister and Brother-in-law came to visit us this week. They have been to the wine country several times before and knew exactly where to take us. We really had a great time with my family. It's kind of hard out on the road, as you can imagine, only getting phone calls and not seeing anyone you know for months at a time. The first time anyone came to visit us was when we were in Phoenix last year. We try to travel through the towns where our family and friends live on our trips from one assignment to another, but it's not the same as seeing them on a regular basis. We had a great time and went to a bunch of wineries as well as a trip on the Napa Valley Wine Train. The wine train was cute, the food was good, and the scenery was beautiful...it's one of those toursty things to do. That's part of the traveling thing, to see all the places you want and to send a piece back to the people you know. Adding the pictures was a lot easier than I thought, so you can look forward to lots more pictures in the future.
As far as work goes, it's been slowing down. They say the summertime here brings a low census and it has slowed some. I worry about having my contract cancelled due to the low census, I haven't had it happen to me but it could. This week and last week I only worked my 3 twelve hour shifts so it was like a vacation. I have been working 4 twelves for about year now. Once you train your self, it's not hard to do. Some of the people I work with do 5 and 6 twelves a week, not every week but most weeks. That's too much for these old bones...makes me tired just thinking about it. It would make me too cranky too, I think, but the checks would be great!!! Nothing else exciting to talk about as far as work goes...we'll see what happens over the weekend. Wish me luck! Have a great weekend yourselves!!!!

Reno for a day

Hi there sorry it's been so long, maybe if I had some comments I could write more (hint,hint). We had 3 days off in a row so we took a little road trip. We drove down to the southern end of Lake Tahoe,that was beautiful. The water was so blue! We stopped in at Caesars and I won on the quarter slot machine. First time anyone ever came over and handed me money instead of the machine spitting it out at me. The we drove up the east coast of Lake Tahoe and stopped at Cal-Neva casino. Much smaller than I anticipated. The trip to Reno was beautiful the mountains still had some snow when we were by Lake Tahoe. We stayed the night at Circus Circus...and this time my husband got the quarter slot, he was so thrilled. My machine was very subtle and quiet when I won, his was really loud bells and lights and all. He loved it...I moved a little further away to let him have all the attention. Plus it was hurting my ears. We met up with a traveler we had met in Phoenix and had breakfast the next morning. We were going to play just for a little while and ended up staying till 6pm. The ride back was longer than I expected...most times the trip home is shorter. It was a very curvy ride along the mountain side. I hope it's quicker when we leave here in September to go to Oklahoma.
Yes, I renewed my contract until the end of September..the money and the job are too good to leave right now. Plus it's over a hundred degrees in Oklahoma right now...no thanks. It's been hot enough here this week, 90+ everyday. I guess the weather is like that, one week hot the next week cooler. That's what the natives tell me anyway.My husband will be thrilled when it cools down.
Work has been just as busy as ever. They tell me it slows down in the summer, and, we're still waiting for that to happen. Well, I should say they are waiting for it to happen. I love getting the extra days in. Last week I didn't get any extra time because they didn't need me. This week people are on vacation so I picked up 2 eight hour shifts on the transitional care unit. It's like a skilled floor and is much slower and quieter than my regular floor. I figure that's the best way to pick up extra hours and not burn myself out. It seems to be confusing my boss though. He saw me today and said "again?" because I had floated down there earlier this week and had picked up an extra day there last week. I told him that our floor didn't need me but I wanted to work...he just shook his head. Guess he's not used to travelers working so much overtime. Most just want to do their 3 days and then play. I want to work as much as possible then not have to work at all. I guess I'm looking at the big picture and further into the future.
We went to dinner at another travelers house last night. Also someone I met in Phoenix. She is living in the next city (St. Helena) in a cute little cottage. It was nice to have a deck to sit on and to be out in the fresh night air. It's a very pretty drive, past all the vineyards. Since it's been a little clearer in the mornings she gets to see all the hot air balloons as well on her drive in to work. It's nice to have someone we know in town.
Well, I'll try not to make it so long between posts. Thanks for reading.

Life after JCAHO

Well, that was fun. My third week on dayshift and we had our lovely JCAHO inspection. Wasn't that fun? The whole hospital got painted and scrubbed clean. The entire staff was on edge...that part was not fun and never is. Of course my heart stopped when I saw all the suits walk on the floor. But, I was brave and stood my ground researching in my patient's chart, as the walked by I was able to breathe a silent sigh of relief. Ok, I admit it we were "well staffed" that week and there wasn't much activity on the floor...I don't know how that happened but it worked. The hospital over all did well and now we are just waiting for the state to come through. I think it's easier for me to follow the rules since I just learned them and haven't had time to formulate any bad ones associated with this particular hospital. So, all in all I'm very happy with my move from San Pablo.
We've done some more sightseeing...went to the Geyser here in Calistoga and the Petrified forest...not terribly exciting but it was one of those touristy things to do. We did a little garage saling which was fun, saw some interesting things, one guy was selling birdhouses and step stools made of wineboxes. They were very pretty and well done but what would we do with them? Unfortunately they wouldn't pack well. We also went to an estate sale and we were amazed at the condition of the house. Especially here in Napa where the houses are selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars. It was very small and was not well cared for and there was a lot of stuff there...obviously a collector. Estate sales can be sad when you think about why they occur and the fact that a bunch of strangers are digging through this persons stuff but, it is part of the cycle of life.
This past week at work has been pretty peaceful. My boss is very visible on the unit and also very helpful. He got a little anxious during the JCAHO thing but all in all one of the best managers I have worked for so far. I am contemplating extending my contract at this point but, there is a patient who has been on the floor for an extended period of time and it doesn't look like they will be leaving very soon. I have been assigned to this person for almost the entire time I have been at this hospital and it has been difficult. The patient is very angry and demanding and difficult to care for. If it weren't for this patient I would probably sign on for another eight weeks right now. Also, there is the threat of a strike here in California and I am holding out for some possible strike pay. It's nice to have options.
Well, take care all and remember first do no harm.

Off of night shift!

Hello everyone..yes I made it through the night shift about 2 and a half weeks total. It wasn't as difficult to stay awake as I had thought. It was harder to sleep...and now the change back is incredibly difficult. I'm tired but I can't seem to fall asleep when I want to. I start dayshift tomorrow so hopefully tonight will be different. Our little apartment is on the main drag so it's got the white noise I love to fall asleep to. We took a drive up highway 29 to Calistoga the other day. It's a beautiful drive that I'm sure we will take many times while we are here. There's one part of the road by the Beringer Winery that is shaded over by these beautiful trees..plus all along the roadside are the vineyards. It's really like no other place I've seen. There is also an Old Faithful here in California along highway 29..we'll be going back up to see that for sure. I'm working on getting pictures put up on the blog...bear with me. So dayshift starts next week and the Joint Commission will be here the first week of June. The whole place is in an uproar as you can imagine. I think it's easier for us travelers because we don't have the bad habits that the regular staffers do. We just do things like they showed us in orientation and we'll be ok. The hardest thing to remember to do is asking the patients their name and birthday with each pill or treatment. I think slowing down will help...easier said than done I know. Well, have a good week..

Napa California

Well, we have moved up to Napa California and so far things are better. Of course we have only been here less than 3 weeks, so I'm still apprehensive. I am working at Queen of the Valley Hospital on 2 North which is a telemetry/step down unit. The orientation was well organized and very helpful ,unlike some I have endured. I had a 2 day orientation..one day on my floor and one day in ICU..why ICU I have no idea. I am not an ICU nurse nore do I aspire to be. Way too much going on there and way too many tubes. I also don't think I like the Step Down unit idea either...at this hospital the patients on step down can have multiple drips, vent or art line...not my cup of tea. The staff for the most part is very helpful. In orientation they actually said that "At the Queen of the Valley we speak English." Yeah it sounded nice but of course once you are really out there it's not so...especially on night shift. Yes, I am doing night shift for a couple of weeks just to get my foot in the door and out of the bad situation in San Pablo. It should only be one more week and it is killing me. I am tired all the time. Hats off to all you night shift people who only work nights, I'm glad you are there. The weather here in Napa has been excellent sunny and not to warm but just warm enough. The vineyards offer hot air balloon rides at sunrise so in the mornings when I leave work I can see them in the sky...really spectacular. We opted for the housing allowance and so far it has worked to our advantage. We found a nice small, older complex that is very close to the hospital. We haven't done much sightseeing yet what with being on nights and all but will keep you updated when we do. As always...first do no harm.

San Pablo or San Pa-blow

Wow, just when you think you've been to the worst assignment ever...it gets worse. And it makes me wonder about the nurses that work at these hospitals..is it just that they have never worked anywhere else so they don't know how bad it is? Or is it that they can't move and this is the closest hospital? Anyway too bad for them to have to stay here. This place is just as bad as the floor I was on at Riverside Hospital in Columbus, only this seems to be a majority of the hospital. They have had several sentinel events in the past few months and don't seem to be dealing very well.A lot of the staff nurses are very resentful and angry because of the strike they went through a year ago and are not nice to travelers at all. The nursing assistants I have met so far all have an attitude. And not a good one. I was told by one particularly unfriendly NA that the nursing assistants on that floor don't do all the baths and proceeded to tell me which one of my five patients she was going to bathe for me. They don't do vitals because apparently they didn't know enough to inform a nurse about abnormal vitals and there was a bad outcome. They also are not allowed to do I&O because of another mishap. Their role seems to be to bathe people, answer call lights, pass out the food trays and feed people...although they aren't allowed to chart how much they ate. Frustrating. I see these things as a learning experience where maybe they nursing assistants need to be educated in the importance of their job but this particular facility sees it differently. If they can't do it right then we just won't have them do it...so now they do even less for the same pay and we do more. It's a scary place. The only place that I have been to that in my first 2 weeks the state and the joint commission have already been there. No wonder these people are so uptight.
I have to commend my travel company and my recruiter. They are standing by me and trying to find me a new assignment.
The city of San Pablo is also not so great. Yeah it's on the bay but you can't get to the bay...oh, there is one park ,but you have to pay to get in. We will be trying out the BART transit system to go over to San Francisco hopefully this week. I would like to see fisherman's wharf again...it was very fun last time we were here.
I guess the only good thing is we were not in Bakersfield for the earthquake. And we are not in Cleveland right now where it is snowing...I'll try to send my friends there a little sunshine....miss you guys.

Moving forward

I try not to look at it as leaving or moving on but moving forward in my quest for financial freedom. Though I love nursing ,it is merely a vessel to get me to my ultimate destination of financial freedom.
I have enjoyed my stay here in Bakersfield(did I really say that?) I have met some wonderful people. The small hospital feel makes me remember my first hospital where you knew everyone not just the other nurses but the housekeepers and the dietary people , the transporters and the pharmacists by name. It's been nice. The staff has been very welcoming to all the travelers. I would like to thank Heather, Micky, Kat,Hazel,Hee Seon, Jaime, Pat,Tracy,Sherri,Lisa,Karen and Maggy for helping me through this assignment. I loved working with the travelers Stephanie,Tanya, Tania. And I always love working with new nurses and showing them that nursing is fun too...Susanna and Dora. I appreciate the night shift for always making it a nice place to come into in the morning. I also want to thank Sharon and Mary for being understanding and helpful with my schedule. I have also met some other great people like Maria,Jon,Mike and Freddie. I hope all of their jobs get easier.
The new place I am going is a bit bigger 250 beds in San Pablo California. We are hoping the weather will be nice for the upcoming summer. Plus it's very close to San Francisco so our friends and family can visit.
One of the harder part of this traveling thing is trying to get the timing right for the assignments. I particularly do not like to work for Christmas or New Years so I have to count the weeks and decide what length of assignment to take next. So, I either need to stay at this next assignment for a few extra weeks or take a shorter assignment next. We will have to see.

California Dreamin

Hi Everyone. Yeah I'm California Dreamin here in Bakersfield...dreamin of some sunshine and dry weather. Ok , I shouldn't complain too much cuz it's not snowing and 30 degrees like my friends in Rhode Island or Cleveland. We are only 2 hours from the coast and 4 hours from Vegas. But it's really hard to take a day off when the hospital is calling all the time. I went to Oklahoma this last week for my niece's wedding and their weather was better than here. I was off work for 6 days and the hospital called me 3 times to come in to work. It's nice to be wanted...and it's job security, right? I could stay but the grayness might just kill my good attitude so we are choosing to move on...probably to the bay area. At least the water is right there...and fog burns off.
Mercy Southwest is a cute little place..26 med-surg tele beds and 8 ICU beds. We have a secretary and a monitor tech a charge nurse and 2 nurse techs...nurse patient ratio is 5:1. It's not bad , hard on the nurse techs to have 13 patients. The patient turn over is pretty rapid...los is usually 3 days ER is always full...makes me wonder what these patients did before this ER was open, I guess they sat in someone else's waiting room. The staff nurses are very nice and helpful and grateful for our help. There are quite a few travelers here. The apartment complex I am in boasts population of 150 travelers.
The town of Bakersfield doesn't have a lot to offer that I have found but it is a growing community. There are houses and housing complexes popping up all over the southwest side. We made it over to Pismo Beach for Valentines Day. We enjoyed beautiful sunny weather and rode 4-wheelers on the sand dunes, huh? It was fun and a new adventure. We drove through Morro Bay and reminisced about our time there. We are planning a couple of days in Vegas before we head north early next month.
Still working on getting some picture on this blog so you all can enjoy the scenery with us.

Mercy

Hello, yes I'm writing in grey. Because that is what I see. I think the sun was out once since we've been here in Bakersfield. And like everywhere else we go, "this is such unusual weather", is all I hear. When we were in Rhode Island an it rained forever...Oh this is so unusual it never rains this much here. When we were in Phoenix and escaped the flood waters oh my it never rains like this here...how unusual. The same thing happened in Columbus and Orlando. I think we'll change our license plate to Rainmkr so you all know when we roll into town the crappy weather is here...at least for the next 3 months.
So, just as I suspected there is nothing in Bakersfield CA. Just work for me. My poor husband is bored to death. I have been working at the "downtown" hospital mostly because they haven't opened the tele unit at the smaller hospital yet. I heard horror stories before I came here...so did everyone else in my orientation group. I figured it couldn't be too bad since there was one person in the group who actually had been here before and was coming back. It's ugly downtown but not horrible. I lived through horrible in Columbus Ohio at Riverside hospital on 6 North...That was horrible. The kind of horrible where you hate to go to work everyday. You go in with the attitude it's going to be a great day and it just never is. When you are happy to float just to see if the rest of the hospital is just as bad. Mercy isn't that bad...But it ain't Phoenix or Orlando. Those were two of my favorite places to work...Besides home that is. I think the smaller hospital, Mercy Southwest will be much better. It's just a whole different attitude over there. They open their unit Wednesday so we'll see what happens.
Here's hoping your weather is better than mine...

Bakersfield

Hey all...We made it. Our first stop was the London Bridge in Lake Havasu Arizona. It is an actual replica with pieces of the original bridge. Nice little stop, I bet it would look better at night. Lake Havasu is a very pretty little town. We stopped in Laughlin NV on the way and stayed at the Edgewater in a room over looking the Colorado River...for under $40/night!! A cute little gambling strip (that's all we had time to see) then it was off to the Hoover Dam. A little over an hour sitting in traffic but we wanted to stop for some pictures..We had my niece with us and wanted her to see it. Then it was off to Vegas...I love that town. There's so much to see and do and it's always changing. We rode the monorail from Paris to The Sahara...It's a difficult thing to find but it was worth the walk. Our feet would have never made it that far. Bellagio was beautiful... The fountains and the conservatory which also had dancing water this year. We got to go downtown and stay a night in our favorite hotel the Golden Nugget and see the Fremont Street Experience light show. New Year's Eve was spent in front of the Aladdin hotel (where we also stayed a few nights). The sign in front of Paris counted off the seconds way too early and then didn't count them off when it was really midnight...Threw off the whole crowd. We were all wondering if they would really set off the fireworks..The wind threatened to shut them down but it was a really cool sight to see. I'm not one for crowds that big, there's always that one drunk person that keeps pushing you forward into other people. I would do it again if I could go to one of the roof top parties or maybe Downtown would be better . It was $35/person to be downtown. Maybe next year.
Our trip from Vegas to Bakersfield was quicker than I thought...Only 4 hours! You know what that means ....We'll be back. I start my job on Monday at Mercy Southwest...The per diem job didn't pan out. Access nurses didn't realize (even though I told them several times) that I needed to work like this week. Of course I got the new guy and he got confused so I didn't work this week. What a pain, I really hate it when people don't listen to me, or don't listen to the whole story. Hopefully we both learned from this experience.
World Health has delivered everything they were promising so far.. 2 bedroom apartment fully furnished including pots and pans and linens, TV with cable and the phone line. We even got pictures on the wall and a fake tree. Nice little touches. I'll let you know about the hospital next week. There are 150 travelers in this apartment complex... I'm thinking of renting out the club house and inviting them too meet each other...I'll let you know how it goes! Any suggestions for my party?Or what might make you show up to a party like that?