My instructions were to report to work at 0545 at the House Supervisor’s office. GPS said one hour and 10 minutes as the estimated time of my commute, but it was a road I had not yet driven. I left the house at 0415 the drive was nice, but all in the dark. Even with the anticipation I found myself feeling sleepy. I found the House Supervisor easy enough and made it back to my floor in plenty of time for report. It looks like the base staffing is two nurses at a time and a lot of the nurses do postpartum/nursery only so chances are that most of my days will be filled with labor and outpatients. The best suprise of the day was to find out I would actually be on day shift. I do like night shift, but I had no idea how I was going to do the commute on night shift, so this was a major answer to prayer. My head was pounding most of the day. Ibuprofen was not cutting it at all. After work I stopped at Wendy’s and grabbed a frosty and fries before heading west. I pulled into the driveway at 1959. Threw off my clothes and dove into bed. The next two days were better, I both packed more food and carried more ibuprofen. I’m sure my stress level was also less as well as feeling more used to the early hours. I got in a few outpatients and one postpartum discharge, but no deliveries or baby admissions so I’m sure I will be asking a lot of questions of my buddy for weeks to come.
Owens Endeavors 