Working hard

Well,it's looking like summer time out there. My husband and I have been able to go walking everyday I have not been working. It's a great stress reliever. I have also been going to the gym but not as often as I should. The stress has been pretty high at work. I think most of it I put on myself. The floor I am working on has no nursing assistants. The patients have multisystem problems and a lot or renal failure so they are not able to do much for themselves. I spend a lot of my day cleaning, repositioning,feeding, and serving patients and their families on top of my regular nursing duties. Granted, I only have 3 patients but it can be really draining. The hospital is having a mock JACHO survey this week so the charge nurses were all stressed out. It was a long week. Plus, I have been trying to get some overtime and there still is none to be had.
I spent 2 days last week looking for other work. I went to Intelistaf to get some agency work and did all their paper work which took about 4 hours. I have the possibility of working at 2 other hospitals each about 20 minutes away. I also went to an open house at St.Helena hospital which is the same distance in the opposite direction. This week I signed up at The Queen (my regular hospital) to work on Monday and the called me off so I called Intelistaf to get some extra work this week. I spoke with some one at Travis Air Force Base and I may get some shifts there. Tomorrow I get to work in Fairfield at their local hospital. It will keep me focused on my goal and hopefully keep the stress level down. Variety is what keeps me doing this job. I love patient care.
So, this week is also my birthday. I have been doing this job 15 years this year. Hard to believe. I wish someone would have given me some advice when I first started or maybe they did and I didn't listen. Everyone said to start in med surg to get my skills honed. I say work smarter, not harder. When I graduated for nursing school there was a big nursing shortage and I could have gone to any area of nursing I wanted. I probably would have gone to the ER or Maternity. In the ER it's stressful but the nurses and the rest of the staff all seem to work together. You only have to have your patients for a short period of time,rarely do they stay with you for 12 hours. Maternity is not a lot of physical work and the patient are mostly preoccupied with their children or families. I'm not saying those jobs are easier but maybe less physically or mentally stressful. I also would have worked lots of hours when I was younger so I could work less now. Live and learn. Remember to enjoy your job and your career. Do lots of different things and don't get sucked into the thinking that you have to do med-surg first. If ICU really excites you or psych or maternity go there if they will orient you. Med surg gives you multitasking and organizational skills for med surg. If that's not what you ultimately see yourself doing then pursue your passion. Time flies, before you know it you've been doing the same job for 10 years or 15 years or 20 years. Primum non nocere.