Saturday, August 8, 2009

Never say never

You know that old saying "Never say NEVER".
Well, it's come back to bite me in my big ol' keester, twice!
I don't know how many times I have told people that I LOVED working in the nursing home back in Idaho as a CNA, but I'd (you guessed it) never work in one again.
Also, after I had graduated from nursing school and took my first job, we were required to switch shifts every two weeks, day shift to night and back until we finished our 12+ weeks of training. I fell in love working nights and when I was done, you guessed it, I said I'd never work day shift in a hospital.
Well, the last 9 weeks, I've been gainfully UNemployed. The first three were voluntary for the hospital I was to extend my contract with wanted to put it on hold until the census came back up, it from 36 to 18 in about one week. I agreed to wait a couple weeks, so I took time to go back to the ST Louis area and visit family and friends. When I came back, my recruiter told me that the hospital is still wanting me to come back, but they were still waiting for the census to go back up. No problem, I had been wanting to take some time off and had some money saved up.
Two weeks later my recruiter calls, and by the sounds of it, not happy, and tells me that she had just found out that they had hired a bunch nurses in the last several weeks, this was during the time that the hospital was waiting for the census to come back up and have me come back. The thing that PO'ed my recruiter is that they were hiring people during the time that the agency was verifying that they wanting me to come back....had the hospital been truthful and said that they were hiring in new staff and would most likely not need me, the agency could have started looking for another assignment for me.
The next day, my recruiter calls again and tells me that a position is open in Valdez. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven, ever since the spring of '07, I've wanted to work in Valdez. The manager called the next afternoon, did the interview over the phone, was offered the position at the end of the interview. I was happier than a kid with free reign in a toy store. It was short lived. The next morning, my recruiter called with bad news. Seems that Valdez is owned by one of the hospitals in Anchorage and the HR in Anchorage does the hiring for Valdez. Some lacky in Anchorage hired someone for the position I interviewed for...the day BEFORE I interviewed, but failed to tell Valdez and managed to PO about four people (me, the Valdez manager, my recruiter and the account manager), maybe more, who knows.
The following week, another phone call from my recruiter. This time asking if I have any experience in endo(scopy). Nope, none there and something I'm not willing to try out as a traveler. The only other position they have is home health/hospice. Thinking, there is an idea! I worked on a Med/heme/onc floor a CNA and not long after graduation so I was accustomed to taking care of the dying patient and their family. So, my recruiter made the pitch to the company (they were needing 4 home health and 4 hospice RN's) to give me a try for 4 weeks (all I needed to learn was the paperwork) and if there wasn't a fit on either side, no need to finish out the 13 weeks. Two days go by, I hear nothing, then I get a phone call. My recruiter is frustrated because no one in the home health agency was willing to make a decision and wanted to wait til they could talk to the home office. Not sure what really happened for I was not told that they said no. Oh, and one other thing to note, a friend works for the agency and said that I'd be able to do it without a doubt and put in a good word for me for they needed the help really badly...they'd just lost another nurse.
The following week, another job possibility. Home infusion. Talked to another friend that works for the company, he told our recruiter that he would put in a good word for me (he was wanting to get out of his contract so he could go to a 12 hour shift job) so it seemed to be a shoe-in for me. WRONG! The infusion center wanted to hold off 1-2 weeks to see if they could hire someone perm for the position before saying I had a contract (without an interview!). All I could think was "Well, God bless America (this happens to be my g-ma's first name) & f*@k me running!". I would have banged my head on the table, but Paco was playing on the table in front of me and I couldn't hurt that little featherball.
Now, here I am, 9 weeks without a job, though, I do start one on Monday, in Seward (WOOT!), a day shift (boo!), 12 hours (yeah!...don't like 8's) in a LTC.....that is a long term care facitily a.k.a.:nursing home...UGH!
I can't bitch too much or too loud. It's (as a dear friend puts it) J.O.B., housing is provided. Will be working 4 on, 2 off, 2 on, 6 off! Nice thing about that, those 2 days off, are really days off, won't spend the first one sleeping! Another reason why I can't bitch, it's in Seward. And Seward is beautiful. I'll be there for the silver run, I can go hike out at Exit glacier, go on a glacier/wildlife cruise (been wanting to do that for 2 years now) and after I get my freeze, I'll go halibut fishing again! Not to mention that I want to get some rock fish and lingcod...hope I can go before the season closes on those.
I feel that the tide is turning and I'm about ready to ride it...just hope I can stay on top and not fall off!