Gone are the days of balancing school-clinicals-life – now it’s the work-life balance and striving to be an adult (or something like it). I have a fairly regular schedule as I typically do four days on, four days off. Occasionally I have anywhere from 5-7 days off between sets of shifts (and I’m a-okay with that!).

• Day 1 off from work: I get home, shower, eat, do laundry, sleep until noon, throw my clothes into the dryer, sleep some more, wake up to fold clothes, and relax.
• Day 2 off from work: grocery shopping, regular shopping, hang out with friends/family/boyfriend, and relax.
• Day 3 off from work: same as day 2 (mostly, maybe less shopping or no shopping at all), and relax.
• Day 4 off from work: prep/cook for all of my meals for my days at work, portion them all out accordingly, relax, and go to sleep early because 6am wake-up calls always come early.

Most days, I love my job. Being a nurse is awesome, and I generally like my patients. Some days, I question why I spent 3 years of my life going through nursing school. It’s a mixed bag of feelings on some days, but I think my general feelings on it is that I love being a registered nurse. I’m not 100% sure how long I’ll stay at my current position and what paths I’ll want to take to further my education (but the goal is to further my education). For now, the unit that I’m on is a good ‘stepping stone’. I get to practice a lot of skills, I get to do a lot of things, I get exposed to a lot of different disease processes. And I get to make a difference in peoples’ lives, whether they realize it or not.