once a nurse, always a nurse

It has begun. Even though I am not "technically" a nurse yet, once word gets around that you're a nurse, people don't forget it. Even though I'm not at camp to be the nurse, that's what I get to be, to anyone and everyone who seems to have any health issue, regardless of whether or not I feel qualified to handle the situation.

I guess I should be more excited about this, but a part of me still feels inadequate for the job. I know that after four years of school, deep down, I know how to handle a lot more than I give myself credit for, but I also know that a lot of nursing is learned "on the job" which I haven't done yet.

For two weeks this summer, I will be the "camp nurse." I asked some of my fellow nursing friends who have done this before, and they didn't have much advice to offer- but the fact that they survived gives me a bit of hope that I can handle it. I'm very comforted by the fact I'm surrounded by wilderness first responders, volunteer fire fighters and even EMTs, so if anything goes horribly wrong, there will be plenty of trained people to help out.

Soon enough (fingers crossed) I'll be working in a hospital as a nurse, and will feel at least a bit more prepared to answer the call outside the hospital. Because if the last two weeks are any indication, once people find out I'm a nurse, I'll be responsible for a lot more than the patients on my floor.

In some ways, I know it's a personal issue of self-esteem... I feel like I still don't know what I'm doing. Part of that comes from the studying I've been doing lately, and how even though I get a vast majority of the practice questions right, I also realize just how much I don't know about the medical world.

Luckily, God has put a lot of great people in my life, who are constantly encouraging me from all over the country. And all of my fellow nursing grads have made easy work of the NCLEX, which leads me to believe that a Valpo CoN education may be worth something after all :)