Tag Archives: burn unit

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New Job, Finally!

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It’s been quite a while since the last time I wrote a blog. It’s because I was so distracted with attempting to find a job. My summer sabbatical ended after I finished Camp Kesem Maine. I stupidly thought I would be back at work by the beginning of September. I had no idea how applying for a job had changed since the last time I applied.

It had been twenty-nine years since I walked into St. John’s Mercy Medical Center Human Resources and asked for an application. I filled it out and then handed it back to them. I don’t believe I even had a resume and if i had it would have been typed out on a typewriter. I went home and received a call on my land line to set up an interview with the head nurse, assistant head nurse and a staff nurse. I’m pretty sure they offered my the job either right there on the spot or the next day and I started two weeks later after I gave notice to my other job. Now let’s jump into what it was like this time.

First of all job applications are filled out on line and you attach your resume. I do believe when I applied for the Lutheran School Nurse job I did do a resume on a type writer as I did not have a computer. Microsoft Word and I do not get along so my friend Liz was kind enough to let me just input the major information and she straightened it out for me. After it is submitted then I waited for an email to see if they were interested in setting up a phone interview with a nurse recruiter. That consisted of a schedule in which I picked a time that best worked for me, when she was also available. The phone interview lasted approximately thirty minutes and then she would decide if I was worthy of having an interview with the nurse manager. Then I had to drive in and interview in person. At one of my interviews I was asked why I became a nurse. I wasn’t expecting this, nor had I thought about it in many, many years so out of my mouth came “I wanted to be a doctor, but my father refused to pay for medical school and my mom caught my sister and I playing with matches under the covers when I was eight and threatened to take me to St. Johns burn unit.” Later I remembered the real reason why I became a nurse. When I was fifteen I had an emergency appendectomy and ended up in the hospital for a week. I had two incredible nurses, Joe and Caroline and I wanted to be just like Joe. So I was all prepared to say this at future interviews and I was never asked it again. The interview went well and then I had to set up a time to shadow. This means following a nurse around on the unit I had applied for to see if I liked it. I loved it and then had to wait for over a week to see if I would be offered the position. It was by far the longest week of my entire life!

So now I have a job and I am like great I will get to start working. It would be another week and a half before I would begin nurse orientation. Before I could start the classes I had to agree to a back ground check and go to the lab for a drug test and blood work. I am still immune to hepatitis B, measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox. I was negative for TB. I just had the whooping cough vaccination four years ago so the only thing I needed was a flu shot which allowed me to whine about my arm hurting for three days.

After I passed all that it was on to five days of classes, computer stuff, videos etc. For me it was a very nice review but while sitting through it I thought I cannot imagine being a brand new nurse and be hit with all of this. I probably would have said forget this insanity. I’ll just be a hooker. These classes were called nurse integration and the managers are not called managers but team leaders. The charge nurses are called clinical support nurse. It gives the entire process a more family team feel to it. I suppose this is the type of stuff non medical jobs come up with.

So tomorrow I start in the unit and I cannot wait. However, it’s only for four hours and then I am off to another computer class for four hours. It’s how to chart specific for my unit and something I have never done so I’m pretty excited to learn something new. After that I will be working full time for six or seven weeks and then fear not I will be back to part time girl.

 

Mole Moral ~ Good things come to those who wait!

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Two incredible amazing people.

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It was May of 1991 and I had been a burn nurse for nineteen months when Gary was found in a car that was on fire after the fire had been put out. The fire department did not think anyone was inside. His burns were extensive and he had breathed in a ton of smoke so Dr. Ayvazian told his fiancé Linda that he would not survive. Gary and Linda had both worked on the movie White Palace which was filmed in St. Louis about a year prior to his burn. I have never seen the movie but always remembered this fun fact.

Anyhow Gary was with us for a few months  and then he was discharged home. The thing I remember most about him was the day they were making the mold of his face for his pressure mask. They inserted straws into his nose for him to breath through and then pretty much covered his head. I was his nurse that day and had to think hard about other things as I was having a claustrophobic panic attack for him. I am pretty sure I gave him extra Valium, Versed or something to make it more tolerable for me. Hee hee

     It wasn’t too long before we started seeing him again. There was a Burns Recovered Support Group that was run by a guy who was before my time. It wasn’t long until he passed away and Gary and Linda stepped up to take over the group. I believe they met once a month and Gary would come visit patients once or twice a week during the day time.
     After seeing an article in People magazine about a burn camp in Texas, Linda felt called that  Missouri needed a children’s burn camp. After doing research she discovered we had none so she and Gary decided to start their own. The first year (1997) they had 17 campers and no child has ever paid for camp. The camp is located at the Lake of the Ozarks. Brian’s parents have a house at the lake so one summer Emily, Kayla and I made a visit to burn camp. Either Linda gave me bad directions or my lack of GPS skills were showing because I somehow managed to miss the turn and ended up driving to Jefferson City. I turned around and went back to the lake. Brian got his map out and gave me new directions. We found it the second time around. Although we didn’t stay long, I immediately knew it was a wonderful place for the kids. A week where they can be just kids and not burn survivors.
     I have had so many burn unit memories over the past couple of weeks. Linda shared my blog and I heard from a nurse friend I have always remembered and wondered what happened to her. Back in the day people would ask how I could work there. And my answer was pretty much everyone got better and went home. I never really knew how most of them did after they left. There were certainly days when I left wondering if all the torture I and the team inflicted on these patients was worth it.
     So on Friday I went and spent the evening with Gary and Linda. I had such a wonderful time that I ended up staying past eleven and the next day went to Universal Studios on four hours of sleep. I would have done it on no sleep! They are both two amazing selfless giving people. They took the support group to an amazing place and they started the camp from the ground up. I am sure at the time of the accident if you would have asked if this would have been their path in life they would have said no way. I can’t help but think God had this planned all along. I use to see Gary in the cafeteria on Tuesdays from time to time. It was always an exciting day for me. I cannot remember (even though we just talked about this) if they retired and moved four or six years ago. I do know it took me close to two years to stop looking for Gary in the cafeteria.

 

     I’ve never felt that were truly recognized nor appreciated for all they have done, especially by the hospital. However it’s as if God purposefully put these words of Jesus in my head (yes I had to look up exactly where they are located. Bible bees locations are much like patients names. I know their story but not their names)
 Matthew 6 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 

2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you 

These two live this every day. I’m so thankful that I decided to share my Dr. Ayvazian blog with Linda. She responded with an invitation if you are ever in the area please come see us. She was probably blown away when I said I will actually be there in three days, free on Friday. Originally Emily and I were both coming on Saturday and starting trip on Sunday. Since I’m a theme park nazi I decided we should start on Saturday and fly in Friday. She took a red-eye so she could work on Friday and the rest is history.

Mole Moral ~ Gary and Linda are my providential people. (Another church term). Meeting them changed the direction of my life and so many, many more and for the better!

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The Last First Day of Clinicals

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Yesterday was Emily’s last first day of clinical’s and she chose Mercy Burn Unit to finish out her physical therapy education. It was a proud mom moment since I worked in the burn unit from 1990 until 2000. She was born in 1992 so perhaps all that time I spent there while pregnant transferred into her. HAHAHA. She had a great first day and really enjoyed it. She was able to see debridement on a brand new burn and told me she wished she could help with the peeling off of the skin. I think the nurse told her the pain medicines she was giving and of course Emily was familiar with all of them because of me. Her clinical instructor is dynamite and she really likes her. She asked Emily what her plan would be for a patient and then told her she agreed with Emily. Perhaps Emily’s presentation on burns helped with this as well as all the questions she asked me. She also met Dr. Smock yesterday and liked him as well. He is the director of the burn unit but will be out-of-town for the rest of her clinical’s.

I was thinking back on to my first day there. I was working on my BSN and had a choice to do 80 hours with management or 140 hours in a clinical setting. (I was already a RN and that’s why I had a choice.) Even back then i had no interest in management so I chose the clinical and was placed in the burn unit. A nurse named Gere was my mentor and I will never forget my first day, walking in and saying I was with Gere. The person responded with “the nurse” and I wanted to say “no the housekeeper” but I actually had a filter back in the day so I kept my mouth shut. My very first day they flew in a 90% burn and I spent most of the day watching what all went into an admission on that big of a burn. I finished my degree in March of 2000 and then applied and started in the burn unit of August 2000. I was thinking about the people I started with and almost every single one of them stayed with mercy so I am not the only one with twenty-seven years experience! John and Rosina went to the OR. One Mary went to cardiac rehab the other to cardiac cath lab. Lisa went on to case management. Jessica did one day in the OR and eventually ended up over in the burn clinic with Diane who just recently retired. Sue went to the JFK clinic. Jeff went to Epic and Jay went to work in one of the doctor’s office. And my two besties Tricia went to NICU and then interventional radiology and Sue is in the PACU so I get to talk to her a lot. My other bestie Lisa left to take raise her kids and came back five years to the burn unit. She tried talking me into coming back but my time had been served. I must mention Tracy who was there when I started and still works there. It’s hard to believe it has been twenty-seven years since I first walked into the burn unit but it was a life changing experience and I learned so much from my co-workers and the patients. I would do it all over again in a heart beat.

 

Mole Moral ~ All those years of talking about how people were burned and how to prevent it must have paved the way for Emily to think it would be a really great place to work as well.