Emergency Department Nurse

I am so happy right now I can hardly take it! I am going to be an Emergency Department Nurse!!! That's right baby! Just like the show (only probably very different)...hahaha. I was offered a job on Friday, May 14, 2010 from Dekalb Medical Center. I will be working at the Hillindale Campus in Lithonia, just outside of Decatur. But there is SO MUCH more to the story. So...for those of you who care to know, here it goes...

I had been working with an elderly lady 2 weeks ago who was in the hospital with pneumonia and needed someone to act as a one on one with her since she required a lot of attention. To keep from breaking any HIPPA laws (and ultimately not embarrass it), I will not disclose the name of the hospital on my blog. Anyway, I have been searching for a job since I graduated from nursing school in December 2009. I applied to numerous hospitals and got really close with one, until they found out I only had my ASN, they required a BSN before hiring any nurse. I was pretty bummed. Then, one day, I was calling a hospital to inquire about any jobs, to which they replied they only hire those who did their clinicals at the hospital BUT, they heard that Dekalb Medical was having an Open House on April 22, 2010 at 11-1pm. I decided to give it a shot. Well, when I arrived, there were already like 200 nurses there! I was about to feel overwhelmed when I thought "Hey, I want to a great nursing school, my teachers were fabulous, I have a great support team from my families and sweet husband, and I know I am a good catch! Get in there and make this happen!" So, with a smile on my face to conceal my nervousness, I spoke with 3 different representatives there. I gave all 3 my resume. Funny enough, I heard from all 3 of them. One was a nurse, who E-mailed me to ask if I wanted to be shown around the hospital along with some other new graduates. The second, was a nursing recruiter named Heather who E-mailed me and asked for an interview in the ED, and the last, was the manager whom I interviewed with for the Hillindale Campus.

OK, now back to the sweet lady I cared for. I was spending HOURS at the hospital with her, so I got to know a lot of the nurses, respiratory team, and physicians. All of them told me that I should apply there because they "were in extreme need for nurses." One of them even gave me a name to the director of nursing. So, I went to HR to find her. Sadly, to my mistake, the lady I was looking for was in Administration. So of course I had to meet with this lady in HR who gave me the same sob story I have heard a million times. That there "was no funding from Corporate to hire new graduates because of the economy." Well, that just wasn't good enough for me. SO, I still went to administration to talk to this lady. Although she was not there right then, she did come find me in the patient's room about an hour later. I told her about myself, gave her my resume, and the next day a lady called to interview me. She basically told me that she would hire me as a Patient Care Tech until August and then, if they got funding, hire me into a new graduate position. If they didn't get funding, they would orient in me 4 weeks to the floor. Well, that was a start! The only thing that I didn't like about it was 1) I would have to work as a CNA for almost 2 months. 2) They weren't sure exactly when they'd start me as a nurse 3) They did not seem as professional as I would have liked them to be. I saw numerous staff members go into Isolation rooms without gowns, gloves etc. They also were constantly late on giving meds...it was just kind of ridiculous. And I want to be a top-notch nurse. So...it wasn't great, but it was going to at least be a job.

Now back to Dekalb Medical. I had my interview May 10th at 10am in Dekalb. While there, I interviewed with Heather and she told me that there was an opening in Lithonia as well as in Decatur. She said he wanted me to interview with them the following week. So, I let her know that another hospital was very interested in me and I needed to know if they were interested in me or not. She said that me talking to the managers means that they were definitely interested and she also said that she would hurry up and schedule interviews for that week instead of the next so that I could get an answer ASAP. So, I interviewed at Hillandale on May 12 at 10am, The other hospital that wanted to hire me as a PCT first at 2pm, and then on May 13 I interviewed at Decatur at 3pm.

So, at 10am on May 12th I went to Lithonia and the ER Manager, was just SO sweet to me. She was very straight forward with me, but she was also uplifting. She seemed excited about the prospect of hiring me. And, in the end, she told me that she wanted to hire me from the day of the Open House. She said that she even called the Nurse Recruiter up to have her set up an interview with me! I was so excited! However, I still had 2 more interviews.

The next interview at the hospital-that-cannot-be-named, went very well. They basically offered me a job on the spot. I told them I would "have to think about it," but the next day when they called again, I turned it down. I felt kind of bad since I basically chewed a few people out to get an interview, but...after about 2 seconds I didn't feel bad. This is the kind of world and economy we are living in right now.

So, after my first day of interviews were over, I REALLY loved Hillindale, but I still had an interview with Dekalb in Decatur. At this point, I really wanted to work at the hospital in Decatur. I liked the idea of living in Downtown Atlanta and being so close to everything (but I guess I really didn't take into consideration that Lithonia is really only a 15 minute drive from there). Anyway, so the night before my interview in Decatur I prayed to Heavenly Father that if I was supposed to go to Lithonia, please let the interview in Dekalb not go well or let me dislike the hospital to the point where I KNEW I was supposed to go to Lithonia. Anyway, so I got to my interview and the manager...well...let's just say she was less than nice. The ENTIRE time she was solely about business only. Her entire personality and depiction of the Decatur ER was "We get the job done, we do it right, no complaints, no distinction between people, and no fun." At one point I seriously asked her, "Do you smile?" For real. I asked that. She had not even said ANYTHING light-heartedly since I met her. I really felt like if I worked there I would just be a number, and as she put it "part of a chorus, where all of our voices should blend together and she should not be able to pick one of us out from the other." Which I know she meant more along the lines of teamwork and not complaining. But it sounded to me like she didn't want to have to bond with us or deal with us...it just sounded so cold. Anyway, she told me that I should shadow at Lithonia and Decatur to see which hospital I liked better, but after listening to her, I knew my answer.

After sitting in the car with Derek for 15 minutes talking through everything, it was VERY obvious and apparent to me that I needed to work for Dekalb in Lithonia. So, I called up the nurse recruiter, told her not to bother with scheduling me for shadowing, and that I wanted to work in Hillindale. Derek and I then went to lithonia, found Marleen (the manager in lithonia) and I told her that I wanted to work for her. She was so excited, she did a little dance and even gave me a little blanket that has the Dekalb Medical Center logo on it. Now, I don't feel like she got that excited because she's desperate to have nurses. I really feel she got excited because she is happy for me and to start training the new nurses. I am pretty sure that I will be the first round of New Grads at the Hillindale Campus. (But don't worry, they work closely with Decatur, so it's not like I'm a guinea pig).

Anyway, I got my job offer on Friday and I am going to start orientation on June 1st. EEEKKK!!!

Lastly, Derek and I also found an apartment and we are SO EXCITED! I will have to tell you about that later though. I have to run, I'm going to go donate blood to the American Red Cross. ADIOS!!