Day 7: January 7, 2010

Today I was the Charge Nurse at work. It's a thankless job and I'm OK with that, but sometimes it makes me want to bang my head against a hard surface. Today I was told "no" one too many times. Not "Hmm, can you explain why you're asking me to do that?" or "What if we did ___ instead?", but just "no". I was unaware that I could simply choose to not do a part of my job when asked. Maybe I'll try that someday...but probably not. Because for me, working as a nurse makes you part of a team, and for me, being part of a team means that you may have to make some sacrifices and "take one" for the team! I work with an amazing group of people who band together in a stressful workplace and accomplish some miraculous things, so a few bad eggs luckily don't break the shell of our unit, but they sure do make the charge nurse work hard for her money! Today I am thankful for flexibility and people who go above and beyond (with or without being asked to do so.)