My 7D Gang!

Sorry I haven't written a blog in a while. I have started a new job that has taken most of my free time lately. I got a job at Memorial hospital on a Cardiac short-stay unit. It's day shift which is SO much better than nights, I don't feel like a vampire anymore and it's totally new to me so I feel like a new grad nurse again but I'm enjoining learning and hope I will eventually be able to keep up on my own. Everyone has been nice so far and I'm just really thankful to have found a job so fast so I can help John financially in our marriage.

Even though I am happy about my new job it will never be the same...and yes I'll say it, I miss 7D! For those of you who don't know 7D is the pulmonary unit in Nashville where I started my nursing career and worked for over a year and a half. I worked 7 PM-7AM on night shift. It was such a crazy unit filled with critically ill and crazy patients all the time and was quite stressful being a new nurse and having 5-6 of those patients at night. Not to mention they put me to be in charge of the unit some nights just a few short months after I finished my orientation. I did not care for pulmonary or night shift or how over worked we all were. But there is one reason and ONE reason only that I would give up this new and improved job and go back to the trenches of 7D...My Co-Workers!!! Anyone knows that what truly makes a job is the people you work with and in my case it really made all the difference! These lovely ladies are the reason I kept my sanity and enjoyed going into work each night.

There's a peace I would get going into a crazy night just knowing that whoever I was working with would have my back and I had theirs. We would make it through till 7AM with all of our patients still alive. We could not have a better group of people on 7D who work so well together on night shift. It's like God put us all together for a reason and I really believe that! We have laughed together, cried together, been frustrated, had parties at work late at night, gotten early morning breakfast when we would get off, hang out outside of work, plot pranks to play on each other, and helped each other out without even being asked. I could have been caught up in a patients room and one of my co-workers would step in and look out for my other patients with out me even asking. We could communicate to one another without even saying a word. No one was ever afraid of rolling up their sleeves and joining you in a patients room to help out. We have had to call security many nights on patients and Rapid Response or codes some nights and the only way we and our patients survived were of the kind of nurses 7D had on the unit. The 7D nurses on nights are different than any other nurses I know... we had everyone's best interest at hand and tried to be the best nurses we could to our patients.

I will never forget the pranks we pulled on Rachel and Ben,Gesma dancing down the hall at 2AM, Katie and I greeting a patient with our antlers on around Christmas time, Stephanie and I pulling a patient up in bed one night, haha, Ben rolling his laptop around at 100mph, my patient who kept escaping out of her restraints, laughing so hard I cried a lot of nights, crying together when we had though nights and so many more! Those are the moments you remember and cherish. This is the reason why we all became friends so fast because we have been through so much together. I truly believe my nursing friends are the best friends I have. Nursing friends are different than my other friends. We share in a bond that no one of my other friends and I have. I could call them up no matter what time of day and know that they would genuinely be there for me whole heartedly. These are some of the most real and selfless friendships I know. You don't find friends like that anywhere else. I know that they understand exactly the way I feel and have been there with me through it all. I consider them some of the best people I know! I can't express the type of relationship we all have but they know what I'm talking about and know how special it is!

I have been so blessed to work with my 7D gang and I miss them more than they know. Thank you all for the good memories, getting me through the though time, making me laugh, and always being there for me and supporting me in what ever I had going on. Eight of my co-workers drove all the way down to my Wedding in Georgia from Nashville and that just meant the world to me, it truly defines who they are and how they would be there for me even though I haven't seen them in over a month. They drove back Sunday and some had to go into work that night. It overwhelms me with their kindness and making sure they didn't miss my special day. You don't find people like that a whole lot. You all mean the world to me, thanks for making my Wedding day and my time at St. T so meaningful! There are no other nurses I would stay up all night with and actually enjoy it. I wish I could come back to work with you all! I love you all and promise to visit soon!

With Love,

Yours Truly (A proud 7D nurse)