Thanks Ashley!

Anna Cottrell and I took Ashley's advice, and we were both hired at PIH in the Observation Unit! WOOT!! I just finished my third week on the job (had my first patient care day on Wednesday), and Anna starts mid-January! Praise God for his provision - including the helpful direction of good friends! Thanks Ashley!

Still looking for a job?

Whittier Pres (PIH, whatever you call it) has 3 new grad positions open right now. The new grad program was really good and the education staff is great. Even better, PIH knows Biola and loves Biola.
You can apply online or call Randi Katz (the RN recruiter) to get your application in.
Do it!
562-698-0811

Call me if you have questions.

You can call me Mom

Hi friends - it's been awhile since I checked the blog, and it's good to know that several of you have new pets. :) Seems to be a theme...

I have no new pets, but I have a new roommate! haha. I'm living in downtown Fullerton in a one bedroom house with my friend, Anna.















I haven't found a job yet, but in the meantime I have been learning how to be a mom. Don't worry, I don't have any children of my own... that would be a little different update! But I have been playing mom for several different families as this new school year is here and parents are going back to work. Here are several of the kids I've been spending my time with. :)



















































































































Life is good.

I've called 40 hospitals in the last 2 weeks. Let me know if you want the info that I've found! God has provided for all of my needs, and I'm convinced that He will continue to do so. Praying that a nursing job is part of that provision that will come soon. As much as I love taking kids to soccer practice, picking them up from school, going on walks, helping with homework, making dinner, cleaning up messes, reading stories, facilitating the bedtime routines, rocking babies to sleep, changing diapers, potty training, playing on slip 'n slides, learning new games, helping siblings get along and forgive each other, disciplining, building lego rocket ships, etc., I'm not a mom. :) I'd love to begin "playing" nurse since I am one!! I'll keep you updated!

The night nurse.

For some reason, Jessica and I started this blog, and then, I forgot to ever post anything here. Oops.

Life really hasn't slowed down much for us, but it's busy in better ways. Dan and I moved in July to La Habra to an apartment we love. It's nicer than our last one but still furnished with hand-me-downs and Saver's treasurers. There is one great new addition, though...Toulouse (from the Aristocats)! While everyone else got engaged/married, had babies or got puppies, we picked up a very silly grey cat who is at this moment attacking my toes. He is stealthy and adorable and hilarious. He also keeps Dan company while I'm at work.



I'm working at PIH on the observation unit, while I wait for a position to open up on the oncology unit across the hall (I'm next on the list!). It's one of the busiest units at the hospital aside from the ER. We do admits and discharges all day long. Seriously. During one shift, I had 6 different patients: started with 3, admitted 1, discharged 2, admitted 2, and discharged another before I went home. Good grief. Patients are generally stable (too sick to go home, not sick enough to be admitted), but we have a few who surprise everybody and code. Lots of code greys, too. Good thing I'm tall and muscular to handle all those violent patients. Luckily, I switched to working nights last week, and I LOVE IT! My sleeping will probably be messed up forever, but I like the flow of nights. It's not as hectic as days, but it's often crazy. My least favorite part: calling docs for orders in the middle of the night. Even if they write an order saying, "Call admitting MD when med rec finished" they don't mean it. Ever.
For now, I have to agree with Tab: work feels like getting paid for clinicals. Oh, and with more responsibility.

One last thing, Dan's surgery has been cancelled because his liver has decided it's done regenerating for a while. He'll be having radio-frequency ablation (microwave on a stick, as the radiologist puts it). It will hopefully only be a 1-2 night hospital stay, as opposed to a month. God-willing.

I miss our class. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad we're finished. But, I really do miss you guys.

Legends of the New Grad

Let me first say, never blogged before, Obviously.

Second, I want to reassure you that everything in this blog is actually true. Even though it may seem like Ive embellished
for the sake of a story.

So with out further explanation, the life of Tabitha Verdick:

So I got engaged. Which was awesome, and for those of you who have never been engaged let me tell you, it's not worth it.
The only good part about being engaged is knowing that you will not be engaged forever.
I highly recommend skipping this phase of historic relationsshipness and go straight for the gold.
Adam and i have decided to weather the storm of engagement by simply staying out of all wedding planning.
We did not even register for ourselves, and if you would like to view what my friend picked out for us you can see
Crateandbarrell.com

But don't tell me what's on it. I haven't seen yet. All that to say on December 4th I will be leaving what I believe
to be the only phase of my life closely rivaling nursing school in painfulness, and will enter into what i
hope to be a wonderful chapter in my life and become Tabitha Kemp.

For those who are curious. I definitely picked a dress with pockets.

In other news, working in a hospital is great, if you really like the idea of getting paid to do clinical. From what i can a tell
it's about the only difference. We all know that Biola has made us super nurses so no need to share the positive here,
I know you would all enjoy the oops moments of my life far more.

Dr. M is on the phone. I had paged him, told the nurses who also needed to speak with him not to hang up when she was done.
I get on the line, get through the first phase of report to find out that Dr. M and Dr. N have very similar names. . . . Wrong doc.

Ever discharge a pt. before getting the neurology consult, then run down the lobby to tell him he can't go home yet,
Then wait four hours to find out that the neurologist is known to be a day behind on all consults, then
call the attending to get an order to discharge without a consult and have him not understand why a patient he
Discharged is still there four hours later? I have. . . . .

Ever joined a floor and then been told the unit is moving upstair to expand, but given instructions not to tell the nurses
On that floor because they haven't been told yet that they're all loosing their jobs? I have. . . .

Ever talked a doctor into buying an iPad instead of one of those dumb PDAs we had to buy? I have. . . .

I guess that's it for now. Such is life. Love my man, love my job, miss my LA peeps.

Life is a constant transition, the more flexible you are the less muscles you pull. Hope you all are doing well. This shall
Commence my first blog ever. And looking at the length it will probably be my last. :)

Legends of the new grad

tomorrrrrrrow

just wanted to remind you all that classes start tomorrow...

WHO CARES WE'RE DOOOOOONE! :)

i secretly just wanted to post something for the heck of it since i've never blogged before. plus, i miss you guys! keep the posts coming and when i have something interesting to write about, i will too. ;)

OH HAI

KTHXBAI

Hiii!

Hey everyone!

Update on my life: I'm living in Boyle Heights (between downtown and East LA), in an intentional community with 7 other Biola students/grads. It's so much fun! We are living in a house owned by a Biola prof that was built in 1888. Our purpose is to learn about LA and love our community.

I'm still looking for a job (can I hear an amen?)... Anticipating applying for UCLA and White Memorial's new grad programs in October. I have a list of 30+ hospitals in the area that I've been checking regularly for jobs. If you guys hear of any other new grad programs in LA let me know! That's what I'd prefer, to start in a new grad program, but I'm still applying for any other jobs that only "prefer" experience.

How's life, guys? Bubbs seems to be in the "cheyne stokes" period...it's almost gone. Miss you all!

Alicia

Common people!!

Where are you all? No one posts on this and now that we have been kicked out of Bubbs (as evidenced by the new level III's using our folder) we need to keep in contact this way! I want to hear what everyone is doing. Tell us about your summer vacations or parties. Who has a job? Who is still looking with me? Common, don't make me feel like the only one out there still looking for a job!

My baby

Since Monique posted pics of her puppy I thought I would post pictures of mine! He is so cute and is the best puppy ever! Since it's so hot he loves playing in the water!

Still looking for a job, nothing yet.

Matt and I are praying about going to Bulgaria in September or October which could postpone the job for a little while but we really think this is what God is calling us to do. So, I'm still looking but everything is kind of up in the air.

I really want to hear from everyone else! What are you doing? Where are you working? Are you doing anything fun for the summer?

My new study buddy

Hey Everyone!

If you haven't seen on facebook....this is the new member to my family! His name is Toby and he's a terrier mix (I'm pretty sure he's a JackRat--jack russell/rat terrier). He's obviously helping me study alot....haha. Hope you are all doing well...I'll still be in SoCal so let me know if you wanna hang out after this NCLEX madness is over! Toby can come along too if you'd like to meet him :)

~Monique

Thank you, Marlene Hurst.

"Go get yourself a lollipop. We need all the glucose we can get!"

"When you're dumb, you know it ahead of time... so the dumb person overcompensates in their studying."

"Go and PASS THIS TEST... then freak out on the way home."

Happy studying!