Kathy Run: Memoirs of a Nurse

Well it is getting a little nostalgic in here! Getting ready to have a baby has been one of my favorite life transitions. I have stopped working right at my 5 year anniversary of becoming a nurse. It has been fun to reflect back on some of my favorite memories.

Oh Mercy... this picture was taken my very first day working as a CNA. When I took my CNA training course I had to ask the instructor what a catheter was :) I was 18 years old and had no idea the learning curve that was ahead of me! I worked for a nursing home traveling agency.

While going to nursing school, I got my first job at a real Hospital! This was one of life's greatest thrills!

Mckay-Dee Hospital will always feel like home to me :) During the years I was in school, I worked on almost every floor of that hospital: inpatient psychiatry, medical, surgical, cardiovascular thoracic, joint and spine, rehab, pediatrics, ICU, mother baby couplet care, labor and delivery, outpatient radiology and laboratory. One night the hospital tube system was down and I was asked to spent a 12 hour graveyard shift running from floor to floor delivering pharmacy orders, blood products, and anything else that needed to get from place to place.

Graduation from Weber State and commissioning ceremony of our ROTC officers.

I studied with 5 army nurses and it was exciting to see them start their service!

International Nursing

Days after graduation I flew to Guatemala to start my first job as a Registered Nurse. The first two weeks I barely understood anything that was said around me, but slowly the language came and I had some of the most neat opportunities at this rural hospital.

I also had a chance years later to study spanish and the healthcare system in Costa Rica.

The Emergency Room :)

Since graduation, I had my sights set on working at the emergency room at Mckay-Dee Hospital. I spoke with the manager there and she said that I would need to get more experience working as a RN before they would consider me. That led me up north to Logan, this was no doubt the guiding of a loving Heavenly Father. It was while living in Logan that I became acquainted Weston Charles Packard:)

Logan Regional Hospital

This pictures was actually taken by Weston on our first official date in summer of 2010.

I got so excited when I saw this bus we chased it to get a picture...

I worked on the float pool there for several months before I met with the manager of the emergency room and plead my case for him to give this new nurse a shot on his unit. Luckily he did, but oh mercy, that year was a year of learning and hard lessons.

Mckay-Dee Hospital

After getting experience in the emergency room I was welcomed to the emergency room at Mckay-Dee!! MAGIC!! This is where I think I grew the most as a nurse. I spent two years here working with AMAZING mentors and became a much more confident and capable nurse.

One of my favorite things about working in Ogden was all the opportunities for community nursing. I was able to work with Life Flight, Weber County Search and Rescue, Ogden City Fire, and Ogden City.

Duke Regional Hospital

Many of my adventures in this hospital are chronicled in this blog already :) This was a city hospital that worked with a very underserved population and I have never worked so hard before. The people were so patient and kind, even though they waited for HOURS to even be seen.

John C. Lincoln Hospital

This Arizona emergency room was the last of which I had the pleasure of working in! Phoenix is a different place than any I have ever worked, but this was an exceptional hospital. My last memories of working here were hugging the garbage can and dry heaving right along with my patients...

(morning sickness/first trimester :)

Holidays at the Hospital

I have always felt so at home at any hospital, I think a part of that is how many holidays I have spent working! I have some of my most fond memories sitting around the staff room table, covered by a bed sheet eating thanksgiving dinner and all the nurses and doctors telling what they are thankful for. Or watching fireworks on the Fourth of July out the hospital window of the pediatric floor with half of your patients:)