The Nurse Nomad

Status post day 3 of my work week. I’m off for five days. I was actually supposed to be in Egypt on a medical mission right now! Our group was going to volunteer at a new hospital in an impoverished community a few hours outside of Cairo. I had prepared a power point on teamwork and nursing ethics, which I was supposed to present in front of Egyptian nurses. I was even going to incorporate a quick, team building exercise! I was super looking forward to that. We were going to spend a few days in Turkey after Egypt, too! I had plans to meet up with a friend I met on social media in Istanbul. I was so excited to see theses parts of the world that I haven’t been to before! Instead, we’re in the middle of a pandemic. And, work has been really busy. First of all, our patients have just been really sick the past few months. Secondly, remember how I mentioned getting covid patients on my unit and how my manager basically said that our unit was “an exception,” and I laughed because I knew it ...

I wonder how many other people out there are listening to the sound of the streets. The roads are soo silent now, every miniscule sound stands out. Which isn’t much, really- sanitation trucks, birds (!!!!), and..sirens. I often think about how many of them are in response to “normal bullshit” and standard medical emergencies versus covid related. It’s surreal and scary and creepy.  But with all this negative talk, I am trying my hardest to be as healthy as I can- physically, emotionally, mentally..  I realize that things are going to get even worse out there in the hospitals, especially down on the front lines. It’s so important that I- and all of us- are as strong as we possibly can be. And it’s definitely not as easy as it looks.  So, how do I do that? Eh, I do what I can. I am still human, soooo, yeah! Of course  I am consuming more red wine than I usually do at this point.. if you can cope without booze right now, then jeez, I admire you! I am working...