Smile like you know what you are doing!

Smiling like I'm in complete control and have absolutely no doubt about my abilities has become my new go to face. It's a particularly useful face to have in a patient's room so s/he doesn't think I'm crazy or incompetent. That being said I generally leave the room and immediately go run options by my fabulous coworkers. They may have no more experience than I, but it's nice to be able to get some confirmation that my head is indeed screwed on straight. In the event that I truly don't know what I'm doing I run to one of our fabulous charge nurses or to the assistant nurse manager on nights. That being said when the charge nurse of the week is your boyfriend, it makes me want to ask questions a little bit less. Nonetheless I persevered, asked the questions that needed asking and everybody lived. They may have either been snowed or restrained, but no one died...that's the main point anyways. 
Now, when your boyfriend is the charge nurse for the week that means his lovely and talented nursing student needs to be precepted by someone else. Somehow that someone else turned out to be me...yes me as in the haven't been working four months yet but somehow people think I'm competent enough to oversee someone else. Needless to say it was an entertaining week as I tried to stay 20 steps ahead of the game, keep my student on track, teach, catch up the stuff that day shift hadn't done, and deal with some quite frankly critical patients. It was a good learning week for my "mini me" to say the least. She learned what massive, rapidly growing hematomas look like, how to restrain people, how to interpret some basic rhythms, what to say when your 96 yo patient asks you if she's in outer space, have we replaced her body, and to bring her bourbon and a man (this same pt the next night would have me kiss her on the cheek three times, and then later grab both my ass and my boobs and try to bite me). I think it was a good learning experience, and she seemed to be enjoying the fast pace, but I definitely wished we'd had a bit more down time to talk things through (that's the goal for next week!). 
I still love my job, but this has definitely been a trying month, and to top it all off my rad blood drawing skills seem to have left me the past couple of weeks. I haven't had a great stick in quite a while :P Oh well I guess it all comes in waves. I am just glad the week is over though because I've been hit, fondled, bled on, and told by my previously sweet patient that she was going to "sock me in my puss". I was so shocked by this statement, that she momentarily won the mitten restraint battle and smacked me in my stomach. It's just been one of those stretches where the mantra of "I love my job, I love my job, I love my job, I love my job" has been the only thing keeping me going at times. Hopefully by Sunday night I'll have recharged my nursing battery and will once again be the little engine that could  =)