RE:Connect

Taking Care of Yourself

Something I have been learning how to deal with lately is how to find time to care for myself and my body. My crazy schedule thus far has been switching back and forth between and day shift and night shift. I have just recently transitioned to working just night shift now. I will work nights until there is a day shift opening. The wait for day shift is around two years. Usually I sleep until around 3 pm and I wake up a cook a good dinner for myself. Then I pack a lunch of cereal, fruit, yogurt and sometimes a peanut butter sandwich. I eat "lunch" around 2 am. Usually when I get off work in the morning I am too tired and too nauseated to eat, so I go straight to bed around 9 am. Then I do the whole thing over again. So I really only get two meals during the day. My body has definitely seen the consequences of this lifestyle. I have lost a little bit of weight and am lacking in energy most days. I know I would feel better if I was eating more meals and exercising more than just taking my dog on a walk . I just can not fathom how I could muster up the energy to go to the gym or go running, when my body is already so tired. I try to make nutritious dinners before I go to work, but it just does not seem to be enough. I am wondering if anyone out there has some good advice on taking care of myself while having to work nights.

Read On!

 

I love to read. Good thing, too, because I feel like my pile of journals, books, articles, and, and, and, (in addition to all the online stuff - blogs, RSS feeds, etc!) is never ending. This was my "hardcopy pile" of stuff to read before vacation. It looked pretty much the same after vacation, too. Did I really think I was going to read it all on vacation? Yes, I honestly did. Then vacation started, and my vacation mindset took over. 

I have read almost everything in this stack, but I have a new group of "to-read" stuff growing. With nursing, medicine, and knowledge of everything else growing at a crazy speed, it's hard to stay abreast of it all. While I'm reading, I tear out, read and file the articles I know I'll want to reference in the future. Do you have a "to-read" pile, too? How do you conquer it?

Finding a Balance

I wanted to comment on Joni Watson's previous blog about balancing work and life. I too have struggled with balancing my work life and even having a personal life. For the last couple of years, my entire focus has been on getting through school and now my focus is still career related where I am trying to figure out how to be a PICU nurse. Sometimes I feel as if my nursing friends are the only ones who understand me and what I go through on a daily basis. My non-nursing friends simply don't understand what I see and have to go through on a daily basis. A lot of times they are grossed out by the things I deal with at work and don't really want to hear about it. The nursing profession is set up very different than most other careers. It's not the 9 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday job. It is very long hours, working holidays and it is working when the rest of the world is sleeping. 

I've had to make myself really work at making more of an effort to see my friends and family. That has been incredibly hard to do since starting night shift because I never quite seem to catch up on my sleep. I hope that I will soon find a balance between everything. Commenting on Joni's post, I tend not to make too many commitments, because I never know just how tired I am going to be. Which, I don't think that is working out in my favor because then I feel like I am missing out on life. I know that my career is not what completes me. It is the friends and family and all sorts of relationships that are there for you in the end. At the end of the day, its not very fun to be successful if you have no one to share it with.

Graduation Season

Well, it happened last week.  My 17 year old daughter, and youngest of my children, graduated from high school.  I was surprised at the ceremony that I remembered so many of the kids from their days in preschool.  They all have such bright futures.  They can become a doctor, lawyer, or indian chief. . . but why not a nurse?  As the mother of 3, i am dismayed that none of my children had even a fleeting desire to pretend to be a nurse.  My oldest, at 26 is aspiring to be a teacher.  I had always hoped that she would be interested in nursing.  She told me once that she would never consider nursing because of the awful hours, and "poor working conditions"  My son still has a sexist point of view, and the new graduate tells me that she "doesn't want to spend her life taking care of other people."  So I guess the generational line of nursing in the family will end with me.  I take pause that perhaps I didn't accurately portray nursing as it is, my one and only career, that I find something new and challenging in everyday.  Maybe too much behind the scenes moaning and complaining. At any rate, I'm sure there are plenty other kids out there who will be at my heels soon enough, eager to move into my position.  Only wish that one of them was mine.

Teetering Work-Life Balance

Anyone else glad May is almost over? Whew! Between graduations, conference season, and proposal deadlines, I'm beat. I very rarely travel for work, but I traveled three weeks in May covering San Antonio, Amarillo, and Houston. Needless to say, all the "other" work didn't stop. When I was in the office, I found myself singing out loud in our building foyer every morning and evening because I was the only one there (and our foyer has some pretty nice acoustics I had never noticed). While I was keeping up with everything work related, I found my family suffering. My two small kids, 4 and 2, were often asleep when I came home, and my husband was beat from chasing after them. As I continue to grow in my nursing career, I'm getting more and more requests to do this and that. Not to mention, thoughts of a PhD are pressing in my mind. And these are only the professional concerns. I had dinner recently with a former nursing professor and mentor of mine, and she reminded me - just say no. She challenged me to take a serious look at my priorities. I did, and my stress level has decreased tremendously. I just love the nursing faculty and mentors in my life! With a new focus, I'm determined to keep my work-life balance in check. Any suggestions for a growing nurse and young mom to keep my sanity? What helps you?

Greetings from Canada!

Greetings from Canada!

Sorry for the delay in getting on–line but I have just returned from a much needed, mind and soul replenishing vacation in Australia.

I am honoured to be involved in this blog experience and hope that I can bring a slightly different perspective to our discussions on oncology nursing. I think that at the core we deal with similar challenges and experiences but perhaps the availability of public, universal health care for everyone north of the border may alter the landscape and allow me to share a new perspective. I have just completed my Master of Nursing, an endeavour I undertook while continuing to work full time in the clinical setting with an acutely ill patient population. The past three years have been mentally and emotionally rewarding but I found myself physically and emotionally drained. In an attempt to finish my studies as quickly as I could I transformed holidays and vacations into days off for studying and writing. At the time I thought this was a brilliant and efficient use of my time. In hindsight, after spending weeks in a foreign country learning the culture and exploring both the known and hidden treasures it had to offer I can say that sequestering myself in my home office in front of a computer is no way to relax and refuel the soul!

I am refreshed and have returned to my position in the outpatient setting working with individuals and families living with lymphoma, chronic leukemias, myeloma and malignant hematologic conditions. I love my role more than I can describe but I find myself presently in a holding pattern trying to wait patiently until a new position becomes available that I can better utilize my new found knowledge and degree. This position will be new to me and I will find myself going from expert back to novice. I hope that in the coming months I can share my experience as I transition from staff nurse to clinical nurse specialist. I am thankful that through my graduate studies and employment I have found a mentor to help guide me through this new and exciting adventure!