RN Update

     I recently obtained my RN. I am now a registered nurse. For the past few months I have been looking for work and having a terrible time of it.
    Believe it or not, despite the "Nursing Shortage" we all have heard so much about, new grad's are having a hard time finding work. The lack of work is being blammed on the recent "economic downturn". Experienced RN's, who had not been working in the field, are returning to RN work for the money and new nurses are very expensive to train.
    It appears as if things are beginning to turn around. More residency positions are popping up all the time. But none in the area I want to be working in. I want to work in  Maternal- Infant health. Ideally I will work with birthing women, babies, and families. But, residencies in labor and delivery, antepartum, and mother-baby are notoriously difficult to come by!
   So once I realized I "wasn't" going to waltz into a hospital position that I really wanted I began applying to anything and everything I thought I might qualify for, which really wasn't much. Over the last month every response I received indicated I was not being considered for the postion. I was even being turned down for residency positions. The rejection began to take it's toll and as of last Tuesday I was convinced I had wasted my time in nursing school, that there was something fundamentally wrong with me, and that I wouldn't get hired for any position, let alone something I would enjoy doing.
   Then, just after an hour or so of crying my eyes out, I received a call from a  ND/LM who wanted to interview me for a part time, clinic position. After scheduling that interview I realized I had been spending all of my time and energy pursuing something I thought I should do rather than what I wanted to do.
  Now, you should know I am generally the type of person who belives in "creating your own reality". I believe the energy you project into the universe determines what you get back. But for some reason I had lost my faith in what I "knew". I had convinced myself that I "had" to get a residency position in a hospital, whether or not it was doing something I am interested in. And the universe was not supporting me in that!
   No sooner had this all dawned on me then I received two more calls that day. By late evening I was laughing at myself. Of course I wasn't getting interviews for jobs I didn't realy want. Why would I? I have a passion, I have a goal, and all I need is faith that I will attain it, that I will be supported along the way in getting what I need to follow the path of my passion. That's why I'm here after all!
    I interviewd with Planned Parenthood on Friday afternoon. It went very well. Both the Planned Parenthood job and the Wellness clinic job would be work I would enjoy doing, work I could contribute to and learn from.
    I have another interview scheduled for Monday afternoon. This is the job I really want. Although the others would be great fits as well, this is the one! That being said I am leaving room for other options, but my vision leads me here... To working in a hospital that supports women having choices in childbirth, more than most area hospitals. A hospital that has midwives, family practice doctors, and OB's attending women. A labor and deliver/ mother-baby unit that has a woman like the one I spoke to on the phone Tuesday evening hiring it's staff!
     We had an amazing conversation. We spoke for an hour and half, almost as peers, although she has been working in the field for over thirty years.Early on in the conversation she asked "what would you say if I say the name Penny Simkin?". What would I say? Penny Simkin in the mother of doulas as a profession in the greater Seattle area. She is a pioneer in choices for women in modern childbirth. Did I already say it was a great conversation?
      I am so looking forward to meeting with the OB hiring manager in person on Monday. She spoke as if she really wanted to get me into a postion. She suggested she was working on finding a way to accomodate for my experiences as a doula and accelerate my residency with mother-baby in order to get me into labor and delivery sooner.
    It feels so good to be wanted, to be interacting with people who also have a passion for health, for women and babies, for birth, for choice! It feels good to be following my passion again, and to have faith that I will be where I need to be, to remember that I am where I need to be!!
  Watch out world... here I come!