My New Job...

I started a new job at Davis Hospital Behavioral Health Unit. I never, ever, imagined I would work on Psych.

My first week was pretty rough for several reasons...

1. I haven't worked graveyards in over 3 years and really love my sleep.  I am a crappy sleeper at night and turns out I am even worse at sleeping during the day which equals no sleep most of the time.
2. I worked 4-13 hours shifts in one week after not working for nearly 4 months.  I handled quite well, Raymond was surprised, but migraines that have progressively gotten worse with this pregnancy got really bad this week.
3. Every night I was there we had to call security at least once to help restrain a patient that was being abusive to themselves, staff and/or property so that we could give them an injection of "calm the hell down!"
4. Crazy people are just fine.  I don't however like Mean Crazy people.  They make me insanely tense and uneasy.
5. The unit has not used the seclusion room or restraints as much in the last year as they did my first week at work. Yay, go me. They keep telling me it isn't usually like that but we shall see.

On the plus side...

1. I have a job.  A much needed job, you know with a baby coming, bills to pay, house to remodel, food to buy.  I needed a job.
2. I am eligible for insurance!  Hallelujah! Our price for medical & dental insurance for our family will be less than we currently pay for just me to have so-so medical insurance. So happy about this and the main reason I took this job.
3. I seem to interact well with the patients.  I learned that not everyone there is...appropriate for the environment and end up making the already irritable and labile patients more irritable.  I had a patient that did great with me and another nurse would not leave them alone and thus we ended up calling security for assistance to restrain the patient while we could medicate him.  Truth be told, I would have rather medicated the nurse.

My plus side list is smaller but the perks of the job (insurance and money) really are all that I am currently needing but I would like to have a job that I like again but I will keep giving it a try. I like being a nice nurse that really cares about my patients condition and progress but everyone else that works there is ornery and mean and don't like "nice nurses".  I won't let them change me into a mean nurse but it's not the best environment to work in.  Oh well, so goes the grown up life.