He finally listened, called his attending. My time in Labor and Delivery had its rewarding moments and its stressful shifts, an intern complaining I hadn’t responded as quickly as he wanted, an argument with a resident about a patient’s temperature, which he wanted to ignore, but I knew indicated a serious change in the patient’s condition. Mercy was a tertiary care center at that time, a teaching hospitals for doctors, so we also learned how to work with interns and residents, who were often just as nervous and uncertain as we were. Julie was honest and encouraging, practiced and patient. The first day, I met my preceptor, Julie, an experienced nurse who guided my every move, provided encouragement when I had to start my first IV, learn how to interpret fetal monitoring strips, perform internal exams, and eventually work in the delivery room as both a scrub or circulating nurse. Then we were tested, and that took another two weeks, before we were assigned and dismissed to our units. Mercy spent 14 days orienting us to hospital policy, the layout of the hospital and specifics as to how the different departments functioned. There were other new recruits that started with me, some having chosen different specialties. I applied, did an interview and secured a position, the hospital in downtown Chicago, a commute I could manage.

Just before my graduation, it was right there waiting for me, openings in Maternal Child at Mercy Hospital. All along I had been reading Nursing Journals, studying the lists of available positions when they were listed. She smiled, said there was no way anyone would hire me right out of nursing school. I thanked her, stressing that I wanted to work in Maternal-Child. I worked on medical-surgical units to get more experience.Īs my graduation drew near, the nurse recruiter urged me to apply for a position in one of those units.

During my last semester, I did what is called an Externship. I have always been fascinated by science and medicine, so much so that after my children were born and my youngest was ready to spend mornings with other children at daycare, I went back to school, studied and became a Registered Nurse.

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