Employed!!

Yes, the rumors are true.. I got a job!!! I will be working HERE starting October 24th! I will be on the advanced heart failure unit (AHFU) full time, which for nurses is 3 12-hour shifts per week. The only downside is I will be working nights. Unfortunately this was pretty much the only area hiring new grads, and nights were the only shifts available! Oh well, I will get paid more per hour, and can put my name on the list the first day of work to switch to days when a spot comes available.

Finding a job in Virginia was MUCH more difficult than I thought. Even getting my foot in the door was a struggle. I tried calling, emailing, and even going to all the hospitals to try and just TALK to someone with no luck! I had to keep reminding myself that it is not in my control, and that His timing is perfect. Once I got past the frustration of job rejection, I was able to relax and I found myself in a much better state of mind. Not 2 days later, my neighbor tells me that a guy he works with is married to one of the head recruiters for Sentara (the largest hospital system in the area) and that he has her personal cell phone number for me to call her!! I called her that night, and she told me that critical care and mother/baby units are extremely difficult to get into as a new grad, but if you want critical care, the heart hospital is a wonderful place to start, and they hire new grads. She said "Come to the job fair this weekend, come find me when you get there, I'll take you around and introduce you to the managers, and if you don't have a few interviews set up by the end of it, call me on Monday and I'll set some up for you." Ummm, answer to prayer, yes?? I was able to set up a few interviews on my own at the job fair, and was interviewing that next Wednesday! One of the interviews was with the cardiac ICU, and the manager was actually standing in line waiting to talk to me because they were some how impressed with my resume!? Not sure how that one happened hah!

I was a little nervous about what to say if we had a conversation something like this:
Them: "So what brings you to Virginia?"
Me: "My husband's job"
Them: "Oh, great, what does he do?"
Me: .....

Technically they are not allowed to ask me this question, but sometimes they do. Am I supposed to lie about it because they weren't supposed to ask me about it in the first place? Do I tell them the truth because I have a conscience? Do I tell them only part of the truth? I was afraid my chances of getting a job would be hurt if they found out I was a military spouse. By law they can't not hire you because you are a military spouse, but it would be pretty easy to not hire me for other reasons, like that I have ZERO nursing experience! It'd be pretty easy to pass off a no-hire for something like that! I called my friend Erin who is a radiation therapist in Seattle to ask her advice. (Her husband Colin is a P-3 pilot stationed at NAS Whidbey Island. Nick and Colin met in Pensacola at the very beginning of flight school, and Colin and Erin were both in our wedding party). She had some great advice, and I felt much better about it after talking with her.

So I get to my interview and there are 2 ladies from the unit interviewing me. (Since the units are all so closely connected, I got to pretty much just do one interview for a few different positions) One interviewer was the manager that I had met at the job fair, and the other was the nurse clinician, whom I hadn't met yet. The other lady comes in first, and she begins looking through my resume. Not 2 minutes after she starts perusing, she says "Hmmm.. Corpus Christi..." and I'm thinking oh no, she's onto me! Then the next words out of her mouth were "My husband got his wings in Kingsville!" Part of me is jumping for joy because Nick did too! The other part is cringing because I don't know what to say at this point. She hasn't technically asked me, but I'm pretty sure she already knows. Do I keep silent or fess up? Then, of course, she asks me what made me choose Corpus. Blast! I nervously start giving my half scripted answer that Erin helped me come up with.. "Many people have advised me not to disclose the full truth..." and before I get any further she says, "Why!" *Big sigh of relief on my part here!* Then she goes on and on about how they love the military here and blah blah blah... Turns out her husband flew F-14s!! It was funny because she was getting so excited talking to me about it and at the end of the interview she told me "I had so much fun reminiscing with you!" Thank you God!! They told me they loved interviewing me, and that they wanted me to come in and shadow on the unit for a few hours so that I could make sure it was something I wanted to do- They wanted ME to give THEM the ok before they offered me a position. How cool is that?! I've never heard of a place doing that, but it totally makes sense.

I ended up shadowing in the AHFU and in the cardiac intensive care unit. The CICU was the first unit I went to and it was a CRAZY day. Lots of stuff going on and it was a bit overwhelming. Challenging for sure. They don't normally hire new grads in there, but they thought maybe I was ready (something on my resume made them think this.. not sure what it was seeing as I just graduated and have no experience!!) The only time they hire new grads is if they have done their externship in that hospital or in a cardiac ICU, which I had not done. Needless to say I felt very overwhelmed! The next day I shadowed in the advanced heart failure unit which was MUCH more relaxed and slower paced. I felt like I could almost jump on the unit right there and be OK so that's good! I was torn because I really wanted to work in the ICU and knew that I could do it with lots of independent study and orientation/training, but didn't know if they would even offer me that position. The manager in the ICU said they had just hired a new grad last week who did her internship there, and that she didn't know if they could handle another new grad at that time. I was not expecting to get offered the position, and thought that if I was supposed to be in there, they would offer it, and if not, I was supposed to be somewhere else! Turns out I was right, and they offered me the heart failure unit position.. with the plan to transfer to CICU after I got some experience! Perfect! I know that if I got the job in CICU right away that I could have managed it, but I also know I would probably be a wreck for a while trying to keep up and be good at my job! With Nick being gone a lot and him possibly deploying within 3 months, I know that it would be too much emotionally for me to handle. I have a hard enough time dealing with him being gone sometimes! If I were to have a bad/stressful day in ICU and wouldn't have him there to come home to or even talk to on the phone every day I don't know what I would do! Now I'm aware that this WILL happen someday and that I WILL have bad days even on the AHFU and I won't always have him there when I get home, etc. but the stress level starting in the ICU is like 10x more than the AHFU. He knows what He's doing!!!!

So I spent this week getting all my paperwork, pre-employment physical, and new scrubs purchased (we have to wear navy blue) so I'm ready to go next week. Nick has been in Key West since last Saturday so I've been having fun with Sarah, who's husband is in class with Nick and is gone also. Thank God for friends and the great people I've met here already!!

-Laura