Getting Closer!!

It's official, I'm being "promoted"(for lack of a better word) to Nurse Extern in January!!! I'm SO excited, my supervisor just told me yesterday!! I've been waiting for a definitive answer since August! I knew I'd have to wait until January IF it happened, but now I know it IS happening!!!! *squeal!* So I have to finish out the December schedule that was just published, and then I am switching. Which means I have about 6 more shifts to work as a CNA, and then I'm done!! Oh yeah, it gets better....I get a RAISE!!! Also, knowing that I will only be an extern for 4 months before GRADUATING makes it seem SO much more real!!! I'm graduating in 6 months!! 177 days!! It's getting SO close!!! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! :-D :-D :-D

Soooooooo, the more I think about it the more I think I will just stay at Glendale and finish up school and NOT switch to Mesa. Partially this is due to finding out about the externship because my supervisor told me she would need to "pair me up" with one of the nurses. Apparently I am supposed to work with the same nurse each time, and so I will need to work one of her days each week...and something tells me that it won't be the same exact day each week (and therefore would pretty much make MCC extremely difficult). Also, I REALLY don't want to leave my fellow students at GCC!! We've grown really close, like a little family, and I would miss them so much!! Third, we are supposed to be turning in our "requests" for preceptorship no later than December 14th....and I don't want to mess that up by switching schools AFTER that date.

What is "preceptorship" you ask? That is the FINAL test of nursing school. It is the ~3 week period of time right before graduation where you are paired with a nurse in one of the hospitals for about 12 shifts and you have to work with him/her and be the nurse. He/she is basically just there to supervise you, YOU are supposed to be the nurse and take their assignment. They're just there to help and, well, like I said: supervise. We are supposed to go online to a specific website between Nov. 24th and Dec. 14th and choose our top 3 hospital and unit preferences. Obviously I will be choosing Labor and Delivery, NICU and probably Postpartum as my choices at all three facilities (even though I don't want Postpartum for my preceptorship....it would be better than Med-Surg!!). The school then tries their best to match each student up with a nurse according to their submitted preferences, but it doesn't always work out. So I may be stuck with Med-Surg anyways, but by NOT switching schools after submitting my preferences I will increase my chances of getting what I want. And since I can't switch BEFOREhand I think I've decided (along with the other two reasons I already mentioned) that I won't be switching.

So yeah. Lots to think about. But I'm SO EXCITED!!! Can you believe Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK??? That's just insane!! And Christmas is right around the corner. Then 2009. Unbelievable. I sense that 2009 is going to be a big year for us (me and Scott). Lots of changes, more in the second half than the first, but still...I'll be graduating in May then studying my butt off for a month and taking the NCLEX in June (hopefully)...then orienting to the RN role at work, most likely in Postpartum. I plan to do Postpartum for a year or two and then maybe switch to L&D, but I haven't decided yet. I'm not too excited about the L&D nurse role at my hospital because they hardly do anything with the babies after they're born because we have nursery nurses come to each delivery and they do the baby's transition unless it is SUPER busy and THEN the L&D nurse may take over on the baby as well. *shrugs* Guess I'll just wait and see. I'm still toying with the idea of switching to Chandler Regional and working NICU (which I REALLY want to do), but I DON'T want to leave Mercy!! I LOVE it there and I LOVE the people I work with!! I think Postpartum is a good place to start. :-)

Anyway, back to changes...Scott will be going back to school next Fall (maybe even this January, but not full time yet until Fall). He'll also be able to cut back his hours at work next Fall. We'll hopefully be buying a house next year. Our lease is up at this house at the end of May. We have an optional 3rd year here if we decide to stay, but I hope to be able to rent month-to-month after May so that if we find the perfect house we can just move out without finishing out the 3rd year (which would end May 2010). We'll see. With 6 months left in the lease is it too early to email the owners and ask about a month-to-month after May or should I wait until like March to ask?? I don't know. The hard part about buying a house is going to be wanting to furnish the house all at once. It's going to be SO exciting and we've been waiting to purchase certain things (like new living room furniture!) until we move so that it will fit the living room of whatever house we decide on. Same with decorations (like curtains, rugs, etc...). While I really wanted to decorate this house, I didn't want to go all out and get stuff that fit THESE windows and THIS house's layout when we know we're only going to be here a max of 3 years. I mean, it is decorated, just not the way I want to decorate OUR house, once we buy. And nothing really matches. That kinda bugs me...okay, it really bugs me....but I know $$$ doesn't grow on trees so I'm dealing with it and waiting for the real deal. :-)

I feel like I'm rambling now, so I'm gonna stop writing. I'd say you get another cookie for reading this whole post, but apparently my mom took me seriously last time and now I owe her a real cookie, lol! (you will get that cookie, Mom, but it might take a few weeks!!)

~Abigail~