Vacation was nice. A week for going to the East Coast is not long enough...after we got adjusted to the time zone, weather and family routines, we had to turn around and come back to the West Coast and readjust. I learned that toddlers do not handle time zone changes very well: little one #2 kept going to bed too late while out East, and then when we got back home was waking up at 0300.
Things are back to normal now. I think the rule is that for each time zone crossed, it takes one day to recover.
Taking a break from all things work helped immensely. I did check work e-mail a couple of times, but didn't respond to anything, nor did I dwell on any work issues. I came back to the job somewhat refreshed and ready to return to work...and tackle the transfer application matter.
In an earlier post, I had learned that I have been contacting the wrong nurse recruiter about my transfer application. So I sent an e-mail to the correct recruiter asking for feedback to improve myself for the next job posting. This recruiter got back to me within an hour to tell me that she's not the one handling recruitment for this position, but it's actually my original recruiter...who also wrote me in the next hour (she was copied on the e-mail) to apologize for not getting back to me sooner. She said that the manager hiring for this position has been out of the office frequently but that my information has been forwarded to her.
Nice to finally get a response...any response.
Then I applied for a job at another facility. Spur-of-the-moment application, but the job posting came out today and I saw that it's perfect for me. Psychiatric ED. Part-time. I qualify for the position and then some. My friend works at facility #4 and loves it there--he's been hounding me to come join him. He was happy that I was applying for it. And what do I have to lose? Nothing but a few hours of working on it.
So I spent those few hours--thank goodness it was a slow day--working on my application, career testing and competency testing. I just finished the competency test...I'm nervous about that. The questions weren't psych-based but dealt with areas such as ED, ICU, post-op...so I applied everything I learned in nursing school and tempered it with what I've learned that facilities want to hear, and did my best. I'll guess I'll know soon enough.
I do realize that should I get this job, I will have to cut one or two of the other jobs loose. It will probably be job #2...and job #1. I'm a little disenchanted with job #1 as of late. They're the ones with the transfer issues and lack of timely responses from staffing. I think it may be time for me to move on, though I would wait until the end of the year so my retirement account is fully vested.
Time to go relax with a good book.
