Celebrating my small success

Last night my friend Terry asked how work was going since she hadn't asked about "Nurse NuNu" in a while. At first I just gave her the generic answer I give everyone, "It's fine, tiring but ok" but I celebrated a small success yesterday and I decided to share it with her.

I walked out one of my patient's room yesterday and an experienced pregnant nurse called out to me as I passed by. She was having a rough day, was tired, and the pregnancy was slowing her down. She had a nurses aide on one side trying to hold a patient still while trying to draw blood for a stat CBC. The patient was stiff as a board and tried to fight her off. She said she couldn't find any veins on the patient and she wanted me to give it a try. I looked at her like she was crazy. Me, a nurse for all of 4 months, who hated starting IV's and drawing blood. I wanted to say if you can't find one what makes you think I can but I didn't. I repositioned the tourniquet, didn't see anything but I felt a big juicy vein in his antecubital space, went for it, and filled up the lavender topped tube.

I have drawn blood many times before and I'm usually successful but it was the praise and compliments the experienced nurse gave me that really made my day. I'm so use to my preceptor looking for something I overlooked, something I didn't transcribe right or anything to be on my back about so it was nice hearing another nurse tell me, "you go girl, you did that like a pro, I'm impressed, good job".

I wasn't going to write about my little victory because sometimes I think people don't want to hear about my life as a nurse but I'm thankful for Terry encouraging me to do so. Besides she's right, this blog is about me duh...lol