Working Mom

I got a new job working at Good Samaritan Hospital in their ICU. I had been working at a long term ventilator specialty hospital for the last 1.5 yrs as there were few positions open in other hospitals. Regional Hospital (my old job) was fairly close to my house, paid well, and was very accommodating to when I wanted to work. However the patient population was not my favorite. I worked with people who were very difficult to get off the breathing machine and so they were often all around very sick and had sad stories and most, with poor outcomes. Before I went to work there, I was thinking of not working in the ICU anymore because it was so sad and draining. Well, now I am so excited to work in the ICU again where there is so much hope and happiness.

Good Samaritan puts their new employees through a very thorough orientation. It lasted 1.5 weeks of full time 8 hr days. Remember I have been an agency nurse for years so I am use to walking in to a new hospital, not know where anything is, how to chart or who anyone is and get a 5 min orientation around the unit and begin working. Although it was long and at time boring, I am very glad to get some orientation. It makes me think the hospital is smart and cares. So far I have been really impressed with Good Samaritan and am very excited to start on the floor on Monday.

So for this last week and a half, it gave me a taste of what it would be like being a working mom in "real life" meaning, the hours normal people work - 8-5pm everyday. One day I went to work, came home and ate dinner and spent about an hour with my family and then went to a meeting. It was wild. It gave me new perspective about what the Dad's go through as it was a typical schedule for a lot of my friends husbands.

So this is what I got out the week in this new perspective.

• When you work full time it shifts your whole perspective. Instead of thinking of my kids and family and what needs to be done at home, I thought of work, since that is what I was doing. Soren had his first field trip and I didn't send him off or welcome him home and I wasn't a volunteer. Instead I was behaving like a working professional in my business casual clothes reviewing Good Samaritans policy on running a code.
• My kids are loyal to the one who they see the most. Just after 3 days of me working and Ryan home, they didn't want to have anything to do with me. What?! "I want to sit by Dad." "No I want to sit by Dad."
• There is very little to no free time. The last 4 days of my training, Ryan worked too so we had Grandma's and a friend watch the boys (thank you all!!). I would pick up the boys at 5 or 5:30 and then do the dinner bedtime routine and then get ready for the next day.. The weekend Ryan had to work so I was just doing boring maintenance stuff trying to get caught up over the weekend.
• I am so lucky to get to stay home most the time. I love staying home with the boys, even when they drive me crazy and I call one of you up exasperated from the last event. I could very easily work full time or even more then just a day a week, but I do not want to. Sometimes I feel like I have to defend that position even to some surprising people in my life, but defend I will because no matter how enticing advancing my career may seem, advancing my motherhood seems even better.
• I am so lucky to be able to work a little at a job that I love, pays well and is very mom friendly. True there are times when I feel like all I do is take care of people at home and then escape to work only to take care of more people, and yes there are parts I could do without, but over all I am very very happy to be a nurse and so lucky to be able to make some money for my family if/when they need it.

Overall assessment - working full time 8 hr days is terrible. I love my normally abnormal schedule.