On what planet would it be a good idea to make me work in
Pediatrics? This isn’t a rhetorical
question (in case you were wondering), I really do want to know. I mean really, I’m kind of awful with kids.
Well I got the ominous news that the Pediatric floor would
be my new workplace this past week, and according to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, I’m
now in stage two of grieving: anger. I
moved on from stage one, denial, fairly quickly because it’s pretty hard to
pretend you still have your old job when you walk past the floor you worked on
and all the patients are gone and none of your coworkers are there. So naturally, I’m just angry now… and quite a
bit sad. Sad because this means a
probability of no more wounded soldiers, no more communicating like adults (I
suck at baby talk… parents will hate me), and of course, no more Georgian
marriage proposals or inappropriate - yet somewhat humorous – comments from the
soldiers (turns out that outside of Utah flat-chested brunettes stand a much better
chance).
But, what’s done is done, and now it’s time to be a nurse of
the child variety. You know, I’ve never
tolerated screaming kids well, so I’m worried about how this new job is going
to play out. Ever since I received this
disheartening news, I’ve been acutely aware of just how scream-ish and unruly
these small humans are. Now when I’m at
church, out shopping, you name it, I want to yell at these parents “Corral your
children!” (ode to Lauren Hansen). I
doubt yelling such things is going to go over well at work.
Now I’m just hoping that I like it more than I did in
nursing school. It's ironic how drastically
what we think we want to do changes. I
remember – before even getting into nursing school – that I thought I wanted to
do Pediatrics. Then when I finally got
to that particular nursing class, I learned rather quickly that I didn’t like
it.
So yes, I’m going to miss taking care of the soldiers… a
lot. I really felt like my job had an
awesome purpose when I took care of the Wounded Warriors. What a humbling and rewarding
experience! But now it’s time to try
something different I guess. Maybe
there’s some great purpose behind me having to be a Peds nurse now… or maybe not. Whatever the case, I think Elizabeth
Kubler-Ross had it right with the five stages of grief. Eventually I’ll have to move on to
acceptance, and maybe by then I’ll learn to enjoy doing something new. Until then, I will continue to eat
chocolate. Because hey, chocolate fixes
just about everything... except the obesity epidemic.
