Workout at Work

In my efforts to lose weight and get healthy, I have been wearing a pedometer for the last few months, every day. When I was working a combination of the receptionist job and teaching, I would get from 3-6,000 steps per day, generally. Since I started the med-tech / caregiver position, I get more like 10-12,000. The caregiver work (currently 1 day per week of my job) is more physical. Kneeling to put on ted hose and shoes, serving in the dining room, etc. The med-tech is also very physical but a few less steps in the day.

So far, so good. I've been more aware of my right knee, which has been tender for the last several months since I fell on it in late November. I was worried that my plantar fascitis problems would come back again with the increased activity, but so far, so good. I have been wearing my orthotics every day, as prescribed.

I sweat A LOT at work. Part of it is the physical activity, and being a larger gal. The other factor is that inside the building it is at least 75F at all times, and in the resident's personal rooms it can be much, much warmer, depending on their preference. I have been using residents' kleenex or toilet paper to mop my face when needed, but I should probably start carrying a hankie or something in my pocket. Sometimes when I take off my gloves, sweat splashes out of them and my fingers are pruned. I mentioned the sweat issue to another caregiver I was training with last week and she said she sweat a lot at the beginning too.

At one point, I was riding up in the elevator after serving a meal to the residents, and the woman I was working with that day asked me what was wrong. "Nothing, really!" I kept saying. I then understood that she thought the droplets falling down my cheeks were tears. Just sweat, I promise.

First week @ Work (Medical Lab)

Last week was my first week working at my new job in a clinical pathology lab. Pretty much the first entire day was taken up by orientation, reading company policy documents & doing online safety training modules. From there on, it was right into the lab "shadowing" one of their current star employees who is leaving in 2 weeks.

The shifts I was working were 2-10:30ish, with a ten minute paid break twice a day and a half hour "lunch" break in the middle. For the first 3 in-lab days everything was scattered all over the place, trying to jump from one machine to the next, getting little pieces of information scattered about in my head about various equipment, procedures and software, with barely a chance to even try it out before moving on to the next thing.

I am not used to doing shift work, or working in any sort of extremely structured environment. It was a struggle for me being on my feet moving around so much (when I'm used to mostly desk jobs), and also just trying to stay alert for that long. I learned that it is important to grab a snack and rehydrate during those short breaks to keep my blood sugar up. I'm not diabetic or anything, but spending all that time on my feet and not having a chance to get a bite to eat here and there I started feeling really foggy very quickly.

On Friday, my last day in the lab this week, my trainer had me start out the shift just focusing on "heme" which means running the CBC's, "retic's", and making blood smear slides of samples where indicated. I did that for several hours, then after my lunch break started adding in running some urines now and then, doing some triage drug tox tests and cardiac tests, and vitamin D levels, and archiving samples. By the end of the night I was feeling a lot more confident, and was able to move through some of the shut down procedures without any supervision, and actually feel like I was being more of a help than a hindrance.

Working from 2pm through 10:30 or so, in an indoor environment with all those bright lights, and all the physical activity completely threw my sleep schedule off. I would get home around 11, be awake for a few more hours, maybe fall asleep at 1 or 2, then get up around noon the next day and prepare to go to work again. I didn't get much of anything done outside of work, so my task list has been building up.

Now I've got Saturday, Sunday and Monday off, and when I go back on Tuesday I'll be starting at 6am. I let myself sleep in today, but tomorrow I need to start getting up early in preparation. I made a couple of appointments for my Monday off, with my doctor, and to get my job-provided Hep B vaccination series started. I need to check and make sure I haven't already had that.

I think this job will be great preparation for an eventual career in nursing, what with all the running around and multi-tasking. It has been challenging so far but I think thing will move more smoothly with time.

I need to make sure and get some scrubs ordered this weekend. I had a pen in the pocket of my lab coat and it leaked all over my shirt last night.

Pre-Nursing Jobs

In talking to my pre-nursing classmates, many of them have part or full time jobs, some in the health professions. Right now I am tutoring biology and english part time. It's not really enough to live off of. Some of the jobs I have been either applying for or preparing to apply for, or some of my classmates are doing are:

-working at a blood bank
-phlebotomy (requires a small amount of schooling and a license)
-cardiac monitor tech
-medical assisting (usually after going through a 4 or 5 month program)
-ward clerk
-home health aide
-admitting clerk
-medical transporter
-certified nurse assistant (requires more schooling/training/testing)

I think getting a job at a hospital, where often 3 twelve hour shifts are considered full-time, might be ideal in working with my 3 day per week student schedule next semester. At this point though, I would be thankful for any full time job. Any pre-nursing or nursing student readers? What did you do to earn money or experience before nursing school?