Happy New Month y’all! 😃
In today’s episode: My First Few Shifts in England.
I’ll be moving to a new assignment later this month and I can’t help but feel anxious given my first few shifts in England.
The ward: William Harvey.
Speciality: Medicine Endocrine
I was lucky to join the ward with two other colleagues. Our manager welcomed us as best as she could. We had spent two weeks sorting out the prerequisites to start work and time couldn’t have moved slower during those weeks. It’s like when you really wanted to go to boarding school and convinced your parents to enrol you, only to realise what you’ve signed up for when it’s too late.
At this point, we were Band 4s. In this spot, you are neither a nurse nor a healthcare assistant. Show me one person whose favourite colour is grey. We didn’t belong. Maybe our colleagues didn’t know what to do with us. Maybe it wasn’t their fault. Have you ever tried to look busy when you are not? Now imagine doing that for 12 hours.
I read through all the pamphlets in the ward. All the posters and notices in the ward. I would take toilet breaks every hour. Any job I got I would do to perfection sometimes repeating tasks.
I dreaded working. The off days before work were the hardest to get through. In fact, I would celebrate staff shortage because it meant I had to be “used.” COVID 19 did exactly that for us. As I write this, I can’t help but think of how far I’ve come. How now I just wake up and go to work without a thought. And as much as I look forward to starting my new job, I hate that I’ll be starting.
Moral of the story: Time. Give yourself time. I’m even tempted to say, trust the process.
WCN Weekly Anecdote
By Getrude Orodo
PS. Back in 2019, I had no eyebrows 🤭
