It's 3 am...

Work tonight was long. I didn't get done with all my charting until after midnight. Love those late admits! I hate passing work along to the next shift, so I always try to finish it, if I can. But I gotta learn to do it, I think. I always get stuff passed along to me, so I shouldn't feel guilty passing it on to others. The motto is, "Nursing is a 24 hour a day job"... but I always feel bad if I pass it off. So instead I stay late. And don't put in for extra pay. Sigh. I really should. But I feel like I SHOULD have been able to do everything within my shift.

This shift was particularly interesting, because for the first time in my career, I had a nursing student!! Yes, there was some poor unsuspecting UW student following me around to absorb my vast nursing knowledge. Or not. :-) It was their first clinical of the quarter, so all they were doing was shadowing. So I gave her the royal tour and the code to the locker room and tried to be nice. I remember how horrible some of the nurses treated me and my classmates when we were students. Usually, all the stuff nobody wants to do gets passed down the ladder! There was one incident my first semester that involved 4 nursing students bathing a 500 lb patient. I suspect that maybe we were being hazed or something. :-) I tried hard not to do that tonight. It's weird to have someone following you around, taking notes. I kept telling her, "This is probably not how you learned it in school, but...". Haha. Trying not to scare her too much. But as I was (literally) running down the hall, thanks to a bed alarm, she commented that I really get a workout when I work! Yeah she got the full "Nurse Alison" experience. :-) That poor girl was scrambling to keep up with me, which was pretty amusing. It has been said (by colleagues that shall remain nameless) that I don't move slowly at work, and tonight it was definitely true!

I actually really enjoyed having a student with me. When I was in nursing school, I thought I might want to teach nursing someday. It takes 2 years of experience to be a clinical instructor, so maybe next fall. Definitely a good gig. Something to think about. :-)

It's 3 am and I am wide awake. (Kinda sounds like a Matchbox 20 song, huh!) That's the beauty of working evening shifts, I guess. Bizarre sleeping habits. I can't ever fall asleep right when I get home! Tonight I have a lot on my mind. Which doesn't help me sleep.

Smokey just jumped over the back of the couch, without warning, and began headbutting my right elbow. :-) Then she leaped onto the back of the couch. Then onto my left side. Meowing loudly. Now she has settled into a position lying across the back of the couch, spread out and taking up an unbelievable amount of space! She is adorable. Clearly thinks that it is way past my bedtime!

Well, maybe I should take heed and head to bed. Don't really feel tired, but maybe I'll be able to sleep if I try.