I have arrived!! (sorry for the late posting)

Dallas Texas!!

It will be home for the next 13 weeks and I am staying in an apartment NOT a hotel room!!! I am thoroughly excited about my new place and the fact that it is soo HUGE. Plus, my aunt and uncle are super close by and my good friend from college- Ashley lives in the area too.

my HUGE kitchen :)

My Aunt Zanne & Uncle Konrad pictured with Reina 

my good friend Ashley from UMHB

I will be working at Children's in the Medical Center. My first 2 weeks here are filled with orientation and lectures. Lots and lots of computer training over their policies and procedures, computer charting system, and computer documentation.  The first week is all classroom lectures or computer classes and the second week is orientation on the various units I will be working. Since I'll be in variable staffing here I will be working all over the hospital.

All my belongings have been unpacked and my apartment is fully decorated! The only thing that got lost in the move from the Houston hotel to my mom's house in San Antonio to my apartment in Dallas is my wireless keyboard . . . still have not found it :(

*update- Just noticed I didn't publish this post yet. I have been here in Dallas for 3 weeks now. Finally off orientation at the hospital and so far things are going well. Everyday to get to work I take about 4-5 elevators just to get to the floor I'll be working on so as to be expected I am always LOST and if you ask me where a bathroom is located I probably don't know!!! But other than that everyone is really nice and helpful and patient. And here at Children's just like TCH in Houston-- nurses and staff have phones . . . still NOT a fan. 

Texas Children's Hospital in HOUSTON TEXAS

I got a new assignment in Texas . . . Houston to be exact. I am currently on an 8 week travel nursing assignment at Texas Children's Hospital. Since my contract here is so short (usual contracts are 13 weeks or more) my company put me up in a hotel. Well its an Extended Stay to be precise- meaning there is a microwave, stove top, small sink and refrigerator. But its really just a hotel room- totally boring and small.

Texas Children's is a wonderful place. I am really enjoying the nursing part of my assignment. Even though there was a lot of confusion at the beginning with orientation- everything is now sorted out and I am finally completed with all my orientation and math tests!!! The floor is a general pediatric floor with most patients having a diagnosis of respiratory distress, tonsillectomy, dehydration, gastric enteritis, fever, urinary tract infections, and other general medical problems.

Everyone I work with is really nice and they seem to get along with one another which is great. Plus they are a great help with my many questions- where is this?? How do you work the TV? Where is the cafeteria located? Mostly just general "I'm new here" type of questions. One thing I am not a fan of are these phones that each nurse and staff member has . . . it just beeps and rings all day. If the patient presses the call light, you get a page. If the monitor is beeping (usually because the patient is moving), you get a page. They are nice to get report on new patients but I find them to be mostly annoying!!!