Midland Memorial Hospital

This facility cancelled me one month into a 13 week contract. Why, you ask? Well it began with the father of my patient…(not critical,btw), he was chatting me up while I was doing cares on the baby. He was super friendly and was having an active conversation with me but he was doing most of the talking. In retrospect, I should have asked him to please hold on, and I’ll continue listening to you when I’m done here, but I have issues with being assertive, so I continued to listen to him tell me things like, “we have sand storms here in Midland, called haboobs”. At this point every alarm on my patient that could go off, did. Mind you, they were all benign alarms. At some point during this symphony of temp probe, nasal cannula heater, ecg leads, sat probe and IV alarms, I froze! I recall trying to be sure my IV was still good but the pump being used was new to me and it appeared as though I was fumbling and perhaps had no clue what I was doing. I begin sweating and I stuttered a sentence with the intention of informing him that nothing was wrong with the baby and to hopefully put him at ease, although he seemed just fine because he was still talking to me. At this point the charge nurse came to my bedside and offered her help. Fast forward, I finally sit down to chart about an hour later and he enters the unit with some ebm from mom for the next feeding. Shortly after he drops the milk and leaves the unit, the charge nurse approaches me witha rather sad look on her face so I ask what is wrong? She explains that the parent who was so busy trying to make conversation with me. No longer wants me to be the nurse to take care of his baby. I felt like I just had my gut punched. I was shocked and amazed. Amazed at what a good actor he was. Pretending to engage me in friendly conversation while actually setting me up. But why and for what? Was it to see if I could take care of his baby and have a conversation at the same time? I didn’t understand at all what had happened and what had gone wrong other than the fact that I froze at the bedside. It happens. In an attempt to diffuse the discomfort and perhaps direct the charge nurse in what to do next, I say aloud, “I guess you’ll have to change the assignments around then.” She stares at me with the same sad face while stating that, “he doesn’t think you should be taking care of any baby.” Wow, double whammy. It was night shift but early enough that the manager was still In the unit and I was told to go sit in her office. She came in with another manager and they simply asked what happened and I told them…way too much. I just went on and on digging myself a nice big hole. I even recall ultimately asking if my contract was going to be cancelled. To shorten this already long story, I learned many things about myself that night. I learned that I tend to talk too much in order to avoid and fill up uncomfortable silence. The main lesson being, sometimes I need to shut up and listen. The next night, on my way into work, my recruiter called to tell me that I should essentially turn around and go home. He told me “Do not go to the job” because they no longer wanted my services. I remember this was a few years ago and it was Easter weekend so the young lady that was renting to me was out of town for the holiday, leaving me fully alone in Midland, TX, where there is absolutely NOTHING happening besides oil, old wealth and white privilege. Thankfully I do travel with my emotional support animal, my dog, Prince who I used as a tissue while I stayed in bed for 3 days feeling sorry for myself. Then my renter made me feel 100% better within the first 10 seconds of her getting home and we are still friends till this day! The lesson I want those of you reading this to learn is that nursing is not for the weak or faint of heart but to be a travel nurse, takes a SAVAGE! It is no joke, the packing, lifting, carrying, driving, lifting, carrying, unpacking, working, sleeping, packing, lifting, carrying, driving.. oh and don’t forget to throw in a cancelled contract for low census here and a cancelled contract because a parent doesn’t like you, there, throwing a monkey wrench in any plans that you may have made. Travel nurses are treated as though we are a dime a dozen, disposable, readily replaceable. Travel nurses leave their creature comforts behind and travel to areas they’ve never been before. Travel nurses do not have a support system because we leave our home and all that goes with it behind, until we are no longer needed. Travel nurses enter a unit under a microscope and have to earn trust every time they walk into a new hospital. A travel nurse with 30 years experience is basically treated like a nurse on her very first day of being on her own. Travel nurses have to know how to eat shit sometimes. To this day I’m still unsure how I’ve been able to keep getting up after being knocked down multiple times, not only as a travel nurse but during my entire two and a half decade career!