Being a new RN in Germany

This photo was taken December 2004. But I decided to post it today because I was browsing my photos. This is one of the only recent photos that I have of Stephanie, and it reminds me of how much I miss her....plus it is just one of my favorite pictures. On this day I graduated from Washburn University with my Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree, one of my life highlights.

Since this time, I have not had the luck with job options that I had dreamed of. All of my experience as LPN lies in nursing homes, home health and hospice and then my RN experience is in nursing home (a few months...then I realized I really needed more of a challenge) plus a few months of hospital medical surgical and pediatrics unit combined. Then of course I had to quit in order to move to Germany. I volunteered through the American Red Cross at the health clinic here for about 6 months before getting hired on in a paying position.

I never dreamed that I would work in a health clinic...don't get me wrong, it isn't bad. Great hours, weekends and holidays off...which is REALLY nice being over here and trying to travel at every opportunity. But, the nursing experience is really varied. Every day I am learning and the staff is really awesome at helping me develop as a nurse...trying to include me at anything NEW or anything that I might need practice at (doing IVs!!!).

I thought that nurses just said, "NEXT" and then screened patients blood pressure, weight and etc. (Turns out that here we don't usually do that unless the medics get behind)

The way this clinic is set up it is almost like a mini ER at times. In other words, if someone in our community has a medical situation when the clinic is open, they need to come to us and we triage them out to either the doctors on staff here or on the local economy, based on our appointments available and their conditions. We do IVs to hydrate people and do dressing changes, sutures, EKGs, tons of immunizations and allergy injections. We do circumcisions and vasectomies right there in the clinic. We do health assessments and women's health and we have a great community nursing section, with tracking of STD's and TB. There is a great 'having a baby in Germany' class that a nurse gives every month and she also gives tours of the "Klinikum" (German hospital) where the mothers deliver their babies. One of the nurses tracks and follows up with all the diabetic and asthma patients. There is a laboratory and a xray available in our clinic. Even though this nursing team has not worked together very long, it is just very enjoyable. Everyone truly seems to do what is in the best interest for the patients and also they are supportive to each other and work together. It's been a nice environment so far. It's not just the nurses, it is also the Medics (they let me practice my IV skills on them!!!) and the Providers (the docs are awesome at teaching!) There are many times that I wish I had taken the job in the ICU or in the OR (I was offered both before I left Fort Riley) but I wouldn't be with my sweetheart and I wouldn't be traveling around Europe. So, I have to tell myself I am still learning and honing up on skills...they might not be as many 'technical skills' but learning how to be a triage nurse and how a clinic runs is still proving to be valuable and something I can learn about every day.