The Work Cruise

Imentioned in my profile that I am a nurse and work for a small Rural Hospital in Indiana as the manager of the surgery department, I love my job. Today was our HFAP survey which made for a very interesting day. HFAP is our accreditation body. Anyway if you have ever been thru this process you will understand how stressful it can be. Today was especially stressful for me because I have only been on the job a month and a half. I was pretty much lost thru out. I was very fortunate to have someone from administration to help out. the process went so somthly that I can't believe I was so stressed.

I have to admit that I wasn't the only one that was stressed. My counter part on Med/Surg was beside herslef. She was really stressed out. But, from what I hear she and her department did great. We do have a great staff and administration. How many times have you ever heard anyone speak well of administration? Not very often I bet. Well it's true, at least where I work.

This is my first attempt at management in the nursing field. I have experience in other fields mainly retail along with owning my own business for a while. People are people no matter what field you are in. There are always personalities to deal with. I am very fortunate to have a very talented staff to work with. What's different is the paper work and all of the regulations that you have to deal with in the healthcare field. There are also numerous reports that have to be generated every month. It is taking some time to get it all down. Fortunately for me the previous manager is still with the organization and has been a great help to me.

Before I took this position I work in a different small rural hospital in Indiana where I was a surgical RN. I had a great shift, I worked three 12 hour shifts. I only had to work Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. I always had a 4 day weekend, who could ask for anything more? I traded those three 12 hour shifts for five of them or so it seems. I know I make less money per hour than I did in my previous position. Sometimes we should be careful of what we ask for. My problem is I find it difficult to leave if a case is still going on. I suppose I'll get over that someday, I hope.

Anybody else out there a nurse?