I'll see you in the ICU!

The Set-up

The acute care/anesthesia students have come to one concordance: they've set us up to fail. There is no way in hell that we will find jobs in ICUs within two weeks of finishing up here. Even the CCU has a trainee program that STARTS in August. Krystell has already submitted an application and letters of recommendation, and says that a few other ANES people are pissed off and feel cheated.

Cheated? Yeah. We could have gotten BSNs from anywhere, and not ended up $70K in debt. They made it sound like it's 1-2-3 and you end up with your CRNA at the end (like the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow...it's not there)

So here is my understanding of my life as it is: I owe 70 grand, plus credit cards. I will probably have to work my way UP to an ICU, and then the ICU for a while before even being able to apply for the MSN-ANES anywhere else.

My life for the next year is all about getting what I need, education-wise, and fluffing up my resume by getting my CCRN and other such things.

as a side note (of humor and interst) my preceptor finally agreed to write me an interim review, and wrote me the following letter:

"On clinical performance:

She has a good communication skills with
patients, their families and other allied health workers. She is
compassionate and caring to the patients and their families and her
ability to communicate in Spanish is a plus.

Her background of Anatomy and Physiology is excellent.

Administration of medicines is safe and
accurate although she needs to pay more attention to the scheduled
time. Perhaps her lack of experience is the reason for this.

She is very much aware of her limitations and
comes to me for guidance without hesitation. She however limits
herself in independent practice for fear she will get me into trouble.
I have encouraged her to have more faith in herself so she could get
the maximum experience I allow her to do while still maintaining safe
practice for both of us." (actually...it's not for her...it's because I don't want to kill an acutely ill patient with an idiotic medication error. I could care less about her or me; I'm insured, and it's her licence on the line, not mine)

"Overall, it is a pleaure to work with Lisa as
we all know her.

I wish her all the best and happiness she will
find in her role as a Professional Nurse in the near future."

WTF?

Anyway, because I had to call in this morning to see if she would be in, I completely forgot I had CLASS TONIGHT untill I saw Krystell who said "so...I guess you skipped class tonight?" and I had my "D'OH!" moment.

Holy crap, I don't even have a case study written up.
SO that's what I'm going to do now...and email it to the prof with profuse explanation of my screwball preceptor and changing schedules upon whim.

Love you and miss you all
MUAH!

posted by sketchmonkey @ 5:20 PM