Read about God's faithfulness in my nursing career

Let me preface that God has always been faithful. That is just a characteristic of who he is. Even when things don't happen the way I want them, God is faithful. I trust his plan for my life more than I trust my own. He has perspective I do not have. He is always good.

But that doesn't mean that when I don't get what I think he wants for me, that I'm not upset, or that I don't go through a grieving period.

Let me explain. When I was in nursing school, I was all about soccer. I mean, soccer was my life. It was Division 1. It was traveling every other weekend during the Fall season, and waking up at 5:30am for strength and conditioning (aka hell) during the Spring season. Yea, I wanted to be a nurse, but more immediately, I wanted to be an awesome goalkeeper and teammate.

Once soccer ended, I could devote more time to becoming a nurse. Thankfully, the boring Med-Surg clinicals had ended. My last semester of nursing school, we took a Critical Care class, and WOW my eyes were opened. First of all, I never fell asleep in critical care class, not once. In fact, I was so interested, I studied a lot (for me, anyway). In clinicals, I developed a close relationship with my instructor, and she assigned me to some baller cases in the ICU. I think word got out, because in my Management clinical the same semester, I was the only person in my clinical group that was assigned the ICU at another hospital. So I was in the ICU double duty, and it was AWESOME. I finally found the nursing that was right for me, that made me come alive.

When I graduated, I took the first job offered to me, which in a way, I regret. But at the same time, I don't regret it. It was on a really hard med/surg floor, specializing in general surgery. I ran my butt off all day, and lost weight (which wasn't horrible, considering my wedding was just around the corner). I became a master of nursing tasks. I learned an enormous amount. But I really disliked med/surg and yearned to be back on the ICU.

When Chase and I moved to Arizona, I vowed I would work in the ICU. After applying to over 30 jobs (in all kinds of nursing), I gave up the ICU dream. Arizona had a terrible economy and some hospitals had just laid off nurses. Ain't no one without ICU experience getting into an ICU there, without already being a hospital employee. It took me 6 months to find a job, and I ended up on a neuro/trauma med/surg and telemetry floor. Except this floor was different. We got such high acuity patients at times, our ratio was 3:1 even with an aide. There was a lot more room for critical thinking. We had several multi-complex trauma patients. The staff was awesome. We joked around and worked hard. It was a blast and I would never trade that experience for anything in the world. Working on a step-down trauma floor made me wonder if I would want to go to the trauma ICU eventually, or the trauma emergency room.

When we moved to California, I immediately applied for several jobs, including a Emergency Room Nurse training program for non ER nurses, at a level one trauma hospital. I didn't hear anything for a month, and needed to maintain my skills, so I took a travel assignment at Stanford of a Neurosurgery floor. After my first day of work, I bawled all the way home to Chase on the phone. It was just the realization that I would probably never get to my dream job (little did I know). I wanted to get there before having kids. Three years into my nursing career, it was looking bleak. I really thought God wanted me in critical care, where my strengths are, and what makes me come alive, but I must have been wrong. I had to hand that dream over to the Lord, and it was incredibly difficult. Ultimately, I wanted to follow his path for my life, and if it wasn't critical care nursing, then I prayed that he would removed that desire from my heart.

Fast forward to November, I get an email asking to be interviewed for the ER/Trauma RN position at San Francisco General. It took them 4 months to get back to me! Little did I know, they had over 550 applicants for this position, since it didn't require previous ER experience. They brought in 25 of us to interview, and took the top 8. The interview was incredibly intense. A panel of interviewers sat across from me and fired off clinical situations and asked me what interventions would be needed. We were ranked based on our responses in several categories, including nursing judgment, management ability, critical thinking, etc. 

Three weeks later, they called me and told me I was one of the 8 selected for this position. Out of 550? Is God just showing off? Let's be honest, I've been rejected from enough positions to know there is nothing that special in my cover letter and resume that sets me apart in a pool that big. God is just good. And he is gracious, and I am SO excited.

I will orient to the Trauma Emergency Room for 12 weeks at SF General, and then be off on my own. We also have weekly classes. This is a very intense program, but after it's all over, we will be very competent ER/Trauma nurses. I have always wanted to do critical care, and what is more critical than a trauma emergency room? SF General is a county hospital, there is a large homeless population, and I love that it is committed to providing care regardless of people's ability to pay.

It's also a very spiritually dark city, these people desperately need Jesus. I pray to be a vessel of his light and a testimony of his grace. Please pray that for me.