Thursday, August 10, 2006

A much needed break

God knows our needs before we do. We had a few rough months at work with lots of very sick children passing away. We had the largest number of deaths in a 2 month time frame than anyone could remember. Being that we work on a pediatric hematology/oncology unit, you would think that we would "get used to it" and it would just be a "part of what we do" That is not the case at all. All these deaths were making nurses rethink their choice of career and people were getting burned out.

Today I was talking with someone about what a stark contrast it has been on our unit the last few weeks. Our census is so low, so many empty beds, that we are calling off nurses each shift, we are floating to other units, and our assignments are nice, cushy, 2-3 easy patient lists. It's not even like this around Christmas when we try to get as many children home as possible. This last Christmas, there wasn't any empty bed to be seen. I mentioned that I think God knew we needed a break and this was His gift to us. And for it, I am forever grateful.

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