My New Job

I've decided to take a PRN (as needed) position at my favorite hospital to work at, Avista Adventist Hospital.  It's a Level III Trauma center (I being the highest and IV the lowest) and only has 114 beds, the ED only has 15.  So it's small and not as busy.  It has the highest patient satisfaction rates of any hospital in Denver which I love!  I love being able to take excellent care of my patients!  Avista got a new nursing director in May who is just awesome and has been begging me to come on since she started!  I also love most of the nurses and doctors who work there.  It's just a very friendly environment and there's great teamwork, which makes such a difference.  Not to brag, but coming from Level I hospitals, I really know my stuff there and everyone really thinks I do a great job!

The disadvantages:  The Drive.  It's pretty far, about 30-33 miles away from my house (depending on if you take the freeway or scenic route), and usually takes about 35-40 minutes to get there.  But I really don't get much free time (unless I stay up super late) and it's a good opportunity for me to call my parents or friends, and to listen to church podcasts.  I am also a little nervous to be getting out of the float pool.  I'll be taking a pay cut, up to $5 an hour if I can only do days, but I think I think it will be okay.  And I'll be able to get overtime for picking up a last minute shift. We've already adapted to living off $30k less per year when we had Keira, what's another $5k?  When you make less, you spend less!  :o)

Being PRN, my commitment is to work two days every two weeks.  And my hope is that around the beginning of the year, I'll only have to work about one day a week unless we want extra stuff or want to travel.  

AND I have a fallback!  If they don't have open shifts that I can pick up, or if I get bored or whatever, I'm also going to float hours (work at) the new St. Anthony Hospital.  There's no commitment and I can pick up whatever, whenever is available.  It's a brand new hospital, opened in in June 2011 and it absolutely beautiful!!!  It's a Level I trauma center and best of all, it's only 2.5 miles from our house!

I know, you're wondering why I don't just work there.  And I will admit, I sure hope I made the right decision.   It's mostly because of the high patient satisfaction and the great teamwork and co-workers.  Not to mention, it's not as busy and sometimes I have time to check my e-mail, or write blogs at work!  Although I'm a little nervous, I've prayed a lot about it and feel like I'm making the right decision.  And I might as well be as happy as I can at work if Keira is at daycare.  :-( 

Speaking of new jobs, Chris has a different position also.  He is still a paramedic for AMR, but is no longer working up at Rocky Mountain Fire Department in Louisville.  He's now with the flex system again, doing mostly transfers.  His new days and hours are Thursday through Saturday 9am-9pm and every other Wednesday.  It will be nice for him to have a somewhat regular schedule. And hopefully he'll be able to sleep better at night not having to worry that he'll be awakened for a call.  And hopefully this is only temporary and sometime in the beginning of next year he'll be hired on with Arvada Fire Department.  :o)

Update:  Here's something that was in the Centura news about Avista: 

Top Performer: AAH has been named one of the nation’s top performers on key quality measures by The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of health care organizations in America. The program recognizes hospitals that attain and sustain excellent care for certain conditions, including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, surgical care and children’s asthma. To be listed as a “Top Performer,” Avista met or exceeded a 95 percent performanc threshold on quality measures for which it reported data to The Joint Commission in 2010. Congratulations!