Summer Update

So this summer the three absolutely fascinating ladies who run this blog have been off doing our own things for the summer. It's either sad OR a testament to our friendship that all of us were a bit nervous about doing nursing apart. I mean, when I have no idea if my patient should be looking that way or not, who can I ask to come look real fast before I make a big fool out of myself if Mary Kelly and Katie aren't around!?

MK is working as a Labor & Delivery NA at a hospital in Winston-Salem, Katie is a home health NA back in Chapel Hill (but I'll let them tell you about their experiences...hopefully!), and I'm fresh off working a month at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD.

For me, I loved the month I spent at Bethesda. The Navy gives rising (nursing) seniors the chance to go to one of their big three hospitals to give them a glimpse of what working at a Naval/military hospital will be like, and to help them gain an idea of where they might want to work once they graduate. Unfortunately for me, I think I came out of the experience more unsure of what floor I wanted to work than when I started! I hit every unit at Bethesda except for the ER. So I visited: Medical, Surgical (where most of the wounded warriors (Marines) are recuperating), Oncology/Hemotology, Telemetry, ICU, PACU, L&D, OB Clinic, NICU, Inpatient Psych, TBI (more wounded warriors are here), APU/OR, and the USNS Comfort in Baltimore.

I'll update a little more on my favorites, and the wounded warriors later, but here are a couple quick thoughts I have coming out of my month at Bethesda.
1. I still would never want to do psych nursing
2. L&D was actually really cool, could be something I'd like to do, and according to everybody is a "ticket to Europe" in the Navy...hmmmm!
3. I loved all the other nursing midshipmen that I worked with - the Navy Nurse Corps has a pretty great group of nurses getting ready to join it in a year or so. And the officer that was in charge of us was fabulous!

Erika