Hey friends!
I bet you thought I died or went into a coma or left the country or something.
But if you follow me on FB or IG (@ anna_the_nurse), you’ve probably been able to see that I’m still alive and doing stuff and things.
So… not that I’ve established that I’m still around, let me explain whats been going on.
Reasons I stopped blogging:
1. No time. Or I wasn’t delegating time to do it. And while I felt sorta guilty about it, I also gave myself permission to just live life and not have to worry about documenting it later. It’s been nice.
2. Changes at work. My nursing department has been without a manager since February of 2014. We had an interim manager who was helping us out so I spent extra time at work assisting in a unit supervisor role- doing time cards, schedules, performing preceptor coordinator duties, unit representative to different meetings… I continued working my three 12-hour shifts while doing that, so I was averaging 4 days a week at the hospital. THEN, mid-December, I was blessed with the opportunity to actually transition into the nurse manager position! It still feels weird saying that I’m a manager. Now I’m 5 days a week, 8-ish hours a day (and when I say “8,” I mean that in the loosest of terms. I just finished a 50+ hour work week).
I’m thrilled to be in a leadership role, I guess I didn’t think it would happen quite this fast! Now I have an office and business cards and a 5-hole puncher and all sorts of adult things. #insane
For those who are curious, I manage a 10-bed Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit. I’m a “working manager” which basically means I’m able to help out on the floor as needed, but I’m not pre-assigned to work the floor. So I still get to do SOME traditional nursing, but I’m turning more into an office nurse who goes to meetings and responds to emails for the majority of the day. Except it’s a lot more important than I’m making it sound.
3. I’m on wordpress now. *gulp* It’s intimidating and it’s going to take some getting used to.
4. Feeling Overwhelmed. I was trying to bite off more than I could chew in the sense of trying to do product reviews/link-ups/etc. I just need to blog for ME and when I feel like it, not because I feel obligated to.
Why I want to start up again:
1. I’ve missed all the friends I’ve made through my blog! (Hi!!!!! How are all of you doing??) I’ve continued to follow several of you but reading MaLyn’s Blog in particular makes me wish I were a better, more consistent writer. It’s one thing to wish it and another to do it, so here I am, giving it a whirl. Thanks for inspiring me MaLyn.
2. Did you notice my new and improved blog design? Curtsy of Jim Bob (my brother in law) with the header created by Alyx. Having a new blog-scape makes me want to use it!
3. Now that I have a fairly predicable work schedule with evenings and weekends free, I have the potential to delegate blog time if I want. That’s the theory.
I’m not sure where I’m taking this blog. Obviously, as a manager, I want to be careful about what I post when it comes to being a nurse. But I guess I already was pretty careful since I know my mom reads this blog. I suppose it’ll still be my little space to talk about my life/hobbies/nursey related topics.
So. I’m off to go enjoy my day off. I’m thinking movie theater to watch Into the Woods (because Mo likes war movies, not fairy tale movies), taking down Christmas decorations (it was about to become a Martin Luther King Day Tree) and running some stuff to the post office. It’s about to get all sorts of productive over here.
Have a great weekend!