(Working Women) - Betsy, RN

This week I am excited to bring you an interview with a coworker! Not really, but kinda. Betsy does indeed work for The Man, as a nurse at the VA. When I was a speech fellow, I would get excited to have a patient on 9C, even if it was for a swallow exam (which are hard to get excited about). But that's actually not how I know her, just a nice coincidence. Ready for this? Betsy is married to John. John is Trevor's BF from college. Trevor is married to Rachel. Rach is one of my BFF's from HS. Got it? I know, I know, sounds like one of those "whose taller than who?" logic word problems. Point being, my little family gets to occasionally tag alongside fun events with the Hannam clan, like when they host their yearly Friendsgiving, or at Menne birthday/parties here and there.

 

I know a decent amount about what a nurse does for work, particularly a nurse on a medical/surgical floor, and specifically one who works at the VA. However, for me it was fun to read things about Betsy that I didn't know. For example, although I knew part of the Hannam Love Story - that they went to Jesuit together - I wasn't privy to how they re-connected, or fast they went from exes to engaged! As if Nicholas Sparks wrote it ... And for the college debt factor, I'm right there with Betsy - 10s of thousands of dollars owed. Except for the paying it off thing. I suck at that part, and she clearly rocks it.

 

I love Betsy's candidness about the good parts and the not-so-hot parts of her job as an RN. It takes a special kind of person to be a good nurse. Seriously - and I can say this from actual first-hand knowledge - whether you're a patient, a family member, a doctor, or some other kind of therapist/clinician - a nice, knowledgeable, and compassionate nurse is key. So thanks to Besty, not only for contributing her experience here for this blog, but also for her service as a nurse. Life Rule - always be nice to secretaries, waitresses, and nurses and youe life will go much more smoothly. 

 

And P.S., Betsy, congrats on that recent promotion!!

 

Bio info - who are you, how old are you, where are you from, where do you live, what's your living/family situation, what are your hobbies, etc. Essentially, what's your story?

Betsy, 31, born and raised in Beaverton, Oregon, now living again in Beaverton, OR. Married for 6.5 years to husband, John, with two kids (boy, Jack, 4 years old & girl, Dash, 2 years old).

 

 

 

 

My story is that I went to Catholic elementary and high school (randomly met my husband in 3rd grade and then dated him in high school), graduated high school, went to OSU (for "only" one term, which my husband loves to remind me of!), moved home, went to PCC for three years, then Linfield nursing school. I ran into my "ex" boyfriend's dad one day after college, called John up (since his dad said he was single and I still had his phone number memorized), and we were engaged four months later!

 

 

 

 

 

My hobbies right now involve mostly child-rearing and child-centered activities.  Or napping.  Except I never get to nap, so that's not really a hobby.  I'd like it to be one though. I also used to dance.  Not as a child, however, when I screamed and cried when my mom made me take any kind of dance lesson. I started salsa dancing when I was 21 years old, and quickly immersed myself into the Portland Latin dance scene. I was in college, living in SE Portland and dancing six nights a week. I joined a dance team, had a dance partner, costumes, the whole bit.  I've performed on the Portland Spirit, the big stage on the waterfront's Cinco de Mayo festival, and many other bars in Portland. I spent a week in Guatemala after graduating college and managed to be the only white girl to get spun like a top for a whole evening in one of the local salsa bars. Then John and I started dating more seriously, and let's face it, it is very difficult to Latin dance AND have a boyfriend.  For years, Latin dancing WAS my boyfriend.  It provided me with all the love and "heat" I needed.  But when you have an actual boyfriend, it gets a little weird to leave for an evening knowing you will be sweating and grinding with many men who will undoubtedly find ways to slip their hands all over you.  Plus, my dance partner was starting to get a little fed up with me bailing on him to be with my boyfriend.  He wanted to go on to the professional level, I wanted to spend more time with my long lost love, John. So essentially, I gave up dancing. I miss it most of the time. I keep saying I'll go back to it one day, but now with kids, and working full time, I wonder if that's true.   

 

What is your current job/profession? What path did you take to get there? Any required schooling or training?

Registered Nurse. I began my college career with an Exercise & Sports Science major at OSU.  I also considered a Math major. But I left OSU after one term because I had no idea what the f I wanted to do, and I was not about to spend a ton of money while figuring it out (but spoiler alert, in the end, I ended up owing so much money, I should have just stayed at OSU). So I moved home and went to PCC. After my first year there taking basic college courses, I decided on nursing.  I spent the next two full years completing my prerequisites. I was accepted into Linfield College's nursing program beginning Fall 2004. I graduated Linfield College with a Bachelors of Science in Nursing and began working at the Portland VA Medical Center in February 2007 (nearly 9 months after actually graduating because I kept failing my exit exam... but that's another story all together!)

 

What are the pros and cons of your current position?

Pros:

·         Fullfilling

·         Decent pay

·         Working 3 days per week

·         Nurses are generally a specific breed of people, and they are usually awesome, so working with a lot of nurses is usually quite fun

Cons:

·         12-hour shifts make family-life hard

·        HUGE college debt negates the "decent pay" comment above (I began my adulthood career with $84,000 of student debt in my face.... I've been paying about $900/month in student loans for the past 7 years)

·         Emotionally/physically stressful job

·        Scary.  Let's be honest, pushing a liquid into someone's vein knowing that if you do it wrong it could kill them (on a nearly daily basis) can be scary. Or if a doctor tells you to do something and you hear them wrong, your license is on the line. Or if it's early and you're tired, and you need to give the patient 0.5mg of Dilaudid and it only comes in a vial that is 2mg/1ml, all of a sudden you are expected to complete some complicated math at 07:05 a.m., otherwise you could over sedate the dude ... that's scary.

Walk us through a typical day, week, or month ...

0700- arrive to work

0800- after receiving report from noc RN (night duty nurse), pass AM meds, complete full head to toe assessments

0900- finish AM med pass, begin charting assessments in the free time you have between sending people off and putting them back in bed after procedures, surgery, etc.

1100- begin lunch time meds, blood sugars, vitals, lunch

1200-1600 finish charting, discharge a patient, take an admit, read more thoroughly into why your patient is even in the hospital.  Document more. Send patients off to surgery or other procedures.  Coordinate with other disciplines like PT, OT, SLP (holla Jo!), MDs, etc., for any reason your patient may need

1700 - evening meds, blood sugars, vitals, finish charting

1900 - give report off to noc RN

1930 - get the f outta there!

Obviously, this is very concise and condensed ... some days are a complete clusterf**k.

Typical week:  I work day shift on Sun, Mon, Wed, which is pretty sweet (except working every sunday is pretty NOT sweet, but it works for us with childcare, preschool, etc)

What is something about your job that other people might not know or expect?

It is the furthest thing from glamorous. Or sexy.

What other jobs could you work with your education/training/experience?

What an interesting question.  I suppose, with a Bachelor's of Science, I could do whatever those people might do. But really a BSN is pretty specific to nursing. But the awesome thing about nursing is the options are literally ENDLESS. So to answer your question I could ...

·         Work in an OR

·         Work in an ER

·         Work in an outpatient clinic

·         Work on a movie set

·         Follow a sports team

·         Work in a lawyer's office to assist with medical claims

·         Work with children

·         Work with lactating mamas

·         Work in Guatemala

·         Work in any city, state, or country for that matter

·         Work as a rep for a company that sells medical equipment

·         --Insert interesting field here related to nursing--

How much do you make? (Too forward?!? Probably. But let's be real, a large part of the reason we work is to make money - give us some deets about your income, as much as you feel comfortable sharing, whether specific to your personal salary, or generally speaking, as in, What Would Google Say).

I would say that a beginning RN right out of college, in 2014, makes something close to $50-60K.  With 7 years experience, at the VA I make aboooouuuut $65K.  If I worked "full time" under VA standards I'd make about $70K.  (side note, at the VA, you have to work exactly 80 hours per pay period to be considered full time... Since I work three 12 hr shifts per week = 72 hours, I am actually considered "part time" by the VA, but ANYWHERE else on this earth, 72 hours is considered full time).

Do you anticipate making any career changes in the next 5 to 10 years?

I was just promoted to Unit Shift Leader, which basically makes me the head charge nurse. I am now responsible for writing the schedule for 60+ people, keeping track and accountability for mandatory education for these 60+ staff.  Assisting with hiring (not firing, thank God) of new RNs, CNAs, orientation, etc., of new hires, blah blah blah. It's a huge responsibility without a raise! Yay VA!  Jo, only you will understand this :) So, I can't imagine I'll be leaving anytime soon.


If you could have any other job in the world, what would it be?

Any other job in the world?  In a perfect world:  I would be RN by day, dancer by night. I would also have an interpreting license. My dream job was always a lactation consultant. I would be a lactation consult, with an interpreting license (in Spanish), and a dancer. But only part time of course. Because my "real" full time job would be "mom."  And since this is a perfect world we are talking about... I'd have four kids because money is not an issue.


If someone else was interested in your job, what piece of advice would you give them?

RIGHT ON!  It totally blows sometimes, but when it doesn't, it doesn't.  The world will always need nurses, you will always have a job. 

 

How do you balance work life and home life?

I rearranged my schedule to have Tuesdays and Thursdays off this year. With Jack in preschool Tues/Thurs, I am able to be totally involved in his school, field trips, and other things (just like a real stay-at-home-mom would). I definitely try not to bring work home with me, and I will add that to the "pros" list of nursing; in many nursing jobs, you DON'T have to bring your work home with you.  Physically. Sometimes you do bring it home mentally.  But, hanging with your kids for five minutes usually cures that. The 12-hour shifts can be a total drag since sometimes I get home and my kids are already asleep. So I make a concerted effort to remember that when they see me the next time, if they are extra annoying or needy, because they haven't seen me in two days.  On on my days at work, I'm pretty absent, so to make up for it, I try to be really PRESENT on my days off.  It seems to work out.

 

 

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