Where’s Jilly?
| Individual Campaigns and Legacies Manager Courtauld Institute of Art University of London / Date of entry: 03/02/10 
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| Where’s Jilly? It’s been a long time since I posted anything at all. Mostly I’ve been curled up in a ball here, trying to recoup. The last travel experience was so horrendous I was dubious about ever traveling again. I’ve tried, even looked at a couple of new companies, but I decided finally that what I really wanted was to settle down. I actually had started looking before the last assignment so precipitously ended. I knew there was a place I wanted to be, even if I kept traveling.somewhere I could come back to. I even knew where, just wasn’t sure how to make it happen. I thought maybe I could travel somewhere within 2-3 hours of there and come back when I wasn’t working, but what I really wanted was to settle down. So I started looking for permanent positions. I thought I would really like to get away from the bedside, but somehow, no matter what I looked at, they wanted *experience* at it. I don’t know how you get “experience” if nobody will train you, but anyway. In any case, I finally ended up putting myself in the hands of some very nice headhunters, Amy and Adriana. Amy found me a possibility in a small hospital in rural central VA. I went for an on-site interview and I could tell they wanted me. It was a nice hospital, quite modern for a small town, and it was a pretty town, with a state university there, but it just didn’t feel right. Still, I thought I’d go ahead and fill out the paperwork. And why do itty-bitty hospitals have 10-page applications????? Meanwhile, Adriana had found me a possibility in a hospital in Capital City, which was where I really wanted to be. I thought it would be cardiac, which is really my favorite thing. I was supposed to have a phone interview, but they didn’t call, and I was totally devastated.this hospital had been recommended to me when I was a traveler, by a nurse who had worked agency at every one in the city. Come to find out, though, that they’d been hit really hard by the flu epidemic, to the point where administration folks had actually put on scrubs and pushed stretchers. (That’s a good thing, in my opinion, let them get down in the mud and the blood and the crud where it really happens) The first call I got from them was from the manager of the Neurovascular ICU. Now I like ICU, but when it comes to mucking about in people’s brains, no thank you very much! I was very nice, just thanked her and told her I thought I’d be happier with cardiac stuff, even though I really wanted to tell her that neuro scares the hell out of me. Adriana called me back and when I told her that the NVICU manager had called me she was astounded, since she hadn’t forwarded my resume there at all. So she checked with them again, and on the following day I was called by not only the director of critical care, but the manager of the unit that *really* wanted me. Then the hospital recruiter called me, and before I knew it I was scheduled to fly up there and stay a couple of days, at their expense! So this week I flew up there on Monday and on Tuesday I talked to HR and to the manager of the unit, which is sort of a mini-ICU but no vents. We actually ended up talking for over an hour, and I felt right at home. It seems that she likes my experience, and I like what she is trying to do with the unit. It’s very much a work in progress, and she wants me to be part of it. I have all but the *formal* offer.I know about what they’ll pay me, what the benefits are, and when I can start. I’ve even started looking for a place to live. I guess that means I am no longer “Jilly the Traveling Nurse.” We shall see where I end up. |