However, I would love to tell you about my experience for the past 10 weeks. I haven't said a whole lot about this hospital, my company, or anything to do with this assignment really because of what happened and I wanted things to settle a bit before I was confident enough to put it on a blog. I have been working for a Kaiser hospital in the South Bay area. For those of you that do travel, or are considering travel nursing I'm sure you have heard mixed reviews about Kaiser, and let me just tell you to not ever judge a book by its cover. Yes, I was skeptical about taking this assignment from what I had heard from others about the Kaiser system, but honestly no one had a real "good" reason as to not like the system. Now don't get me wrong, there are some hospitals in the system that are located in parts of town that you shouldn't work, but do your research on the area before you agree to it. All that being said, I LOVE my hospital and the people that I work with. I originally agreed to working night shift for the first few weeks because they needed more help and I wasn't going to rock the boat just yet. I have met some of the funniest, hard working, and kind hearted people on the night shift. Going back to days has been a transition, not because the people aren't just as great but we all seem to be a bit busier with management around, Doctors on the floor, and patients being awake. My night shifters took me under their wing and taught me that it's okay to not know what you're doing after only one day of orientation and that as long as you're willing to ask for help and help others the ship won't sink. I have had so many different scenarios at this hospital, from shoulder dystocias (the baby is a little large to fit through its' mom's pelvis and one shoulder gets stuck) to babies that look great on the monitor and come out not wanting to take a breath. I have had wonderful deliveries and deliveries that have challenged me as a nurse, but I am thankful for each one of them. I've gotten use to taking care of two patients at once, getting a "happy-dural (epidural) for one of them and going to the next room to deliver the other. There have been days and nights that I don't sit down for lunch until 2am or pm, and sometimes that lunch consists of a couple bites of whatever I can scarf down the quickest so that I can still take a potty break before I have to go deliver. Yes it has been busy, crazy busy, but if it wasn't they wouldn't need me. One night, there were only three of us, me, Carol, and Anna (the "trio"). I will get a picture with these two by the end of my assignment so you can see who has kept me laughing for the past few weeks. These two have tried to convince me to stay anyway possible, even by trying to set me up with a CRNA (RN that gives our epidurals). So, although I can't give you a play by play of my daily life, I can tell you the past 10 weeks have been worth it and these last 3 are going to be hard because that means my assignment is ending. I may be moving on for now, but this hospital will always hold a special place in my heart and I hope to some day return back here even if it is for 13 more weeks. I am continuing on with my journey and will be headed to Phoenix, Arizona next.
One of the typical labor/delivery rooms. Having cabinets of supplies is the best idea ever!
So we might night have patios (Pineville) but we do have palm trees!
In true blog fashion, a little update on the LA life. Jillian headed back to Charlotte and I am adjusting to living at my brother's place with his roommate, Matt. I was so sad to see her go, the one person out here that I could count on to go grab food or shop with me! We had a blast though and I'm glad that it worked out to travel together.
Jillian's last night we went to Korea town for BBQ and karaoke
Craig and I have been making the most of this time of course. We took a day trip down to San Diego to visit the zoo and one of Craig's Boilermaker teammates, Erik Wolfe, that lives there. We spent one day exploring downtown LA, a place he hasn't been in all four years that he's been living here! On Easter Sunday, we went with his friends Kim and Dan to Saint Monica church in Santa Monica, some of you may recognize it from your tabloid magazines as the church Reese Witherspoon went to Easter morning or by the church that Tom Brady and Giesele Bundchen were married in.
My roommate, Lauren, from Charlotte also came to visit and I had a blast getting to show her around LA in 24 hours. I tried to get as many "LA to-dos" in as possible and I think we did a pretty good job! One of my blogs before I leave here will be my list of the "must sees" in case you are planning on coming out here.
Hopefully I will have another blog up in the next week or two for more fun adventures before I wrap up my time here! I'm so thankful for everyone's love and support on this journey.
Thanks for reading' and love y'all!
Hadley
