Just right….

There have only been three local facilities I’ve been considering for employment.

The first one was where I spent two semesters of clinicals. I know the hospital well, and I’ve gotten familiar with the nurse managers and house supervisor. I enjoyed my time there and figured I could be happy working there. It is about a twenty minute drive. A big plus – the hospital has just recently achieved magnet status. Downside – not much. The food was just ok. The only other thing I could come up with was the dimness of the floors, in particular the ones I would choose to work. Light is a big deal to me and makes all the difference in how I feel.

The second (and much newer ) hospital was where I spent 96 hours of preceptorship. I really wanted to like this place more. The location was good (i.e. 10 minutes from my door to my floor), the building was beautiful (and bright), the food was better than average, and it took complete advantage of available technology (everything was computerized – down to the supply room). Major ( and daily) downsides I observed during my three weeks – consistent 7:1 nurse/patient ratios and continual floats outside of practice modules. I regularly watched the charge nurse fight for more nurses and regularly watched the director say no. In other words, the pros don’t mean much when the nurse is stretched to the limit without any support.

Then there is the hospital I visited today. I listened to the recruiter when she came to the school and talked with her on the phone after graduation (she called to congratulate me and ask about my future plans). I liked everything she had to say (the pay, bonuses, and retirement beat all others), but without any personal experience I wasn’t sure if I would be happy working there. So I scheduled an interview mainly for a tour and to meet some of the people.

I loved it. The nurse manager who interviewed me actually began working here as a patient care aide. She was very friendly and straight forward. I found out that the director of the ICU and telemetry floors was the same woman who hired me for a summer job in another hospital’s ICU a few years ago. I got to see and talk to her for a few minutes during which she talked to me as if I were definitely going to be working there. (At the end of that summer she had told me to come to her if I ever needed a job.) The atmosphere on the telemetry floor is fantastic. Beautifully lit (again, very important to my well-being) and the other nurses were warm and friendly. 5:1 nurse/patient ratios with two aides for the floor. It was all I needed to know to make my decision.

I haven’t felt this good in a long time.