The Reality of Travel Nursing

We have been feeling a little down lately. Having a rough week. Travel nurses are not treated the same as regular RNs working on the floor. We came off of a high after traveling and spending time with family and friends.  We have settled into our apartment, and are done with orientation. We were excited to start, but our 2 days of orientation on the floor feel insufficient preparing us for working on our own.

This afternoon I (Bela) got off of work and felt just like this picture below...

{I (Natalie) woke up from sleeping after work to Bela laying on the floor in her room like this.  We were both sad.}

This picture is EXACTLY what I did when I got home. I went into my room, laid on the ground (because I still had my scrubs on) on my belly, took off my glasses and was in the same position as this dog. Expression and all.

I usually work night shift and picked up day shift and evening rotating 8 hour shifts for this assignment. I remember now why I hated working days!

We are definitely feeling a little discouraged this week.  After Bela got off work tonight, we decided to take a nice walk at a beautiful park just a couple miles down the road from our apartment.  The fresh air and beautiful scenery did us some good, and now we are sitting at a Starbucks, sipping peppermint mochas, enjoying the Bing Crosby music playing in the background.  Right now it's the simple things that are comforting.  We both definitely know that this is where we are supposed to be, but it's also a little hard right now... and on top of it we don't have the support system we are used to.  We're turning our brains off and seeing Ender's Game tonight at the theater.... we'll deal with reality tomorrow!