Monday, Monday...So Good to Me...

Unlike the rest of the world I USUALLY don't work on Monday. It just the way my master schedule is and I really like it that way. Yes, I have a full time job. I work three twelve hour shifts a week.

That's right work three days, off four days. Seems great huh? Heck that's one of the reasons I thought it would be great to pursue nursing as a career. "Wow", I thought, nurses only work three days a week. I could work full time and still be a mom. Little did I know that three days a week, three twelve hour days a week, might kill me.
I'm really not complaining, I have a great job, in a great hospital, in a great unit, working with some great people....it's...GREAT!!!

My favorite part of being and registered nurse, is connecting with the people I take care of. Most of them are older...that's as in older than me, not old...most of them are hilarious, some of them are grumpy and a few are cantankerous. However my relationship with my patients starts out, it my goal to see a smile on every face at least once a day. If I can create that then the first step to a connection is born. Rare is the person that can resist my bad jokes, or off tune singing of what ever song is stuck in my head for the day. Their smiles usually show pretty quick. The best is when there is witty banter with other staff. Last week I had just such an experience.....(thought cloud ... Cut to scene ... Generic cardiac ICU hospital room ... Somewhere USA...)

Back Info: After a person has open heart surgery it's important to get them up and moving. Cardiac Rehab is the program that assists the patients to get moving after their surgery. This is a twice daily event.

So on Friday afternoon, Wgirl, & Ken Doll(Cardiac Rehab team)and myself, were getting the patient ready to ambulate,(that means walk in nursy language) Wgirl rehab extraordinaire ..was singing a song I am unfamiliar with. I stated I didn't know that song and she said to me, "Do you ever listen to current music?" Hmmm...I thought...well..I'm sure I do...I said to Wgirl, "Why, of course I do, last week I was listening to Lean Like a Cholo." (another story for another blog post...)Any whoo...my little patient shared that he liked The Four Freshmen, and I of course, had to belt out something about...doooowhooop,whoop... the patient got it, Wgril and Ken Doll were looking at me like I was insane. Then the old Song Tammy came to mind and I asked the patient if he remember that one. He did, I was gaining popularity with the patient. I asked him if the Four Freshman had gone to his alum-a-mater(spell checker fail?). He or his wife said I was mistaken that that was the The Lettermen. I was a rock-star now with my patient because I knew some of his songs, and a couple of groups. I could relate...and I could sing...ok attempt to sing a couple of 50's do-ooop's, and part of a sappy ballad about a girl named Tammy. All the while I was thinking...current music?? Dang my age is showing...

I know current music. My I-pod has everything from classical to rap and everything in between. I don't love jazz, but I do like Nora Jones and Jason Marz who are sort of jazzy??? Then I thought, "Who cares because I just made my patient smile", we connected through the 50's do-oop music that I listened to when I was younger.

I really do have a great job, and my "little old people" as I secretly call them are my favorite. They make me smile every day.

Last week one of my favorite nursing home patient's passed away. Her name was Minnie. She once told me she, "loved me daily"...and then an hour later referred to me as as..."a bitch". I choose to remember that with love and humor, and I'm sure she did think I was a bitch, and love me daily...she just didn't know who I was, and that doesn't matter to me, because I knew who she was. She touched my heart as so many of the people I get to know on a short term basis do.

I may or may not listen to "current" music, I may or may not love working 12 hour shifts, at perfect or not so perfect job...BUT, I LOVE what I do, the people I meet, the people I've learned to care for, the people who touch my life, and most of all I love Mondays off!