Restive State

I've just started a nursing externship and Sunday was my first day on the job. The hardest thing for me was to make the transition between a student, where you can do pretty much anything, to an extern who has limitations, but greater responsibilty in their scope of practice. Throughout the semester I have been giving meds during my clinical rotations, but now as an extern I can't. It takes a great deal of energy to keep yourself in line and only do what you are allowed to do. Failure results in termination and being reported to the board, thereby effectively canceling any possiblity of ever working as a nurse when you finish school.

The other thing that is hard is talking about my experiences without breaching patient confidentiality. And it's not just here, but even in town. I don't live in a very large town, sooner or later you're going to run into a patient or the family of a patient and if you happen to be talking about the patient, the damage you can do is devastating.

That has its upside as well. The last rotation of the semester I went to both the Health Department and to the Jail to get a perspective on community nursing. Being a small town, when I was at the jail I saw people I knew, and met a lot of people who I would later remember. So I was out with my wife at Blockbuster one night not too long ago, when I saw a guy who looked too familiar. But I just couldn't place him. I was deep in thought as we kept going through and checked out. The moment I walked out the door, the lightbulb came on. Ohhhh, I know where I knew him from: the jail. Not that it is a big deal in a smaller town to run into people in this way, but running into someone outside you frame of reference sometimes sets you back on your heels a bit.

And speaking of law enforcement, to all those who say crime never happens in Flagstaff, I have a bit of news for you. First, in property crime per capita we lead the state. Yep, we have more property crime per captia than Phoenix, Tucson or anywhere else. The highlight of this is that twice in as many weeks, the DPS helicopter has been overhead tracking someone. I moved away from the city to get away from seeing the cops in my neighborhood everyday, and now I have them shining the Nightsun into my window. It goes without saying that you're never really safe.

Until next time...