checking out - checking in

I checked out of blogging for a while. (That's not entirely true - my personal blog has been going great guns) Anyway, sorry about that.

The more serious issues is that along the way I nearly checked out of nursing too.

I finished working as a Clinical Support Nurse at the end of April and returned to the ward environment. Well, I had never really left the ward environment, but I returned to the hard labour of being the one doing the work rather than supervising and observing others doing the work. I hated it and wanted to quit. While I was trying to find my feet and get my time management back on track I kept getting landed with student nurses and I just couldn't seem to get myself together. (Interestingly, now that I'm flying again I hardly ever am allocated students!)

Somehow nursing seemed little more than a list of tedious jobs I needed to get through by a certain time. Then I could go home. And put my tired, aching feet up and dream of leaving nursing. I mean, mixing up and pushing antibiotics into a cannula - where's the art in that? For me, nursing is all about caring, but all I seemed to be doing was cleaning up excrement and a host of other menial tasks.

None of us like change, and adjustment is uncomfortable, but eventually we get there. As did I. After about two months something clicked. I started to love my job again. Nursing took on new meaning. I cherished my interactions with patients and families in crisis. I saw where each task fitted into the overall picture of caring. I checked back in to nursing.

And now I'm checking back into blogging about nursing. Here's to many reflective posts on nursing in general and my practice in particular!