It Takes a Lot of Guts

Last week, it was just another turning point for my life. I just can't stop thanking God for giving me the courage to have spent the whole week successfully.

I started to decide to move up my scope of practice to the Emergency Department from my seven years of acute pediatric floor experience. It dawned to me that I missed my action days in PICU and NICU so I decided to up-tempo my hospital experiences and added the emergency field to my wide array of nursing experiences.

Although I have been floated and exposed to the emergency department several times, I still wanted to really feel the pressures and stresses it has to offer. None-the-less it is the area most of the nurses were being frontlined and exposed to all kinds of diseases which could either challenge them profesionally or harm them healthwise.

My decisions to transfer to this very challenging unit was to challenge my self extensively in the adult field apart from the pediatric field I've been used to for eighteen years. For sure this department will offer me more opportunities to learn every day as I will encounter a lot of very challenging cases, patients, people, colleagues, and diseases along the way.

I don't know what came into my mind why I changed departments so suddenly but one thing I am sure about it were the challenges I am going to encounter along the way which I could be sure will make me more stronger and resilient to hurdle life's every day atrocities.

I started the application process last April of this year and I had met a lot of hurdles along the way calling the recruiter several times after he informed me that my application was been considered. It took me three months to contact him, have I not initiated to ask help from my cousin who worked as a manager in one of the department to bug him and try to reconsider my application.

The second setback I met was actually my health requirements approval. Despite of my inability to hear, I struggled so much during the physical exam because my hearing aids were so brand new that time and was still under the process of testing and evaluating. Of all the days of doing it it fell during the day of my physical exam which eventually almost had prevented me from being cleared in starting for my hospital orientation.

Good thing the employee health doctor had given me another chance to come back the next week to finalized my health requirements which apparently was been successful after I came back to my audiologist and had the device fixed and double checked. Whew! I almost slipped my chance to be accepted in the emergency department.

I started my orientation on Monday and so far that was a very successful day for me. I still have a lot of apprehensions about what I put my self into but I am still positive that every thing will be in good hands with God's guidance. It's just that I just realized that I am there already and couldn't go back anymore. It's too late to go back to square again. Life is not just that easy.

Now that I am here, my third setback had arised (not just that I wanted it but I have no control about it). My schedule for my school's clinicals were getting in the way of my hospital orientation process so I have to decide right there and then which weighed so much for me.

I took the courage to asked permission personally from my DON from school to reconsider my request because I really needed their consideration and understanding at this moment in time, now that I got what I wished for and made a promise to him to make ammends once this ones will be over. Good thing all my requests were granted and I just can't thank God for siding on me this time.

Now all my schedules were fixed including my oncoming vacation to Dominican Republic for my volunteer work. I know God is really too good because He made all these possible without any obstacles at all including this mini-vacation I have to do in between this orientation process which was been also approved by my new emergency department manager. Thank you Lord!

I just couldn't express my happiness that every thing went well as of this time and that hopefully every thing will be okay until I get absorbed in the unit and finished my probationary period. It really took a lot of guts to have hurdled all these obstacles and without God's help and the help of the people around me I couldn't made it through eventually.

Now, I am happy with the outcome and as I tackled my orientation process smoothly I just couldn't help myself teary-eyed looking back to all those hindrances I have to pass and made through. It just made me a more accomplished person in the end. Hallelujah!