5 West Nursing

Time surely flies when you’re having fun!

Another year has passed and a new one’s comin’ round the corner. It’s been a wonderful ride with a bit of history in the making. I’m excited about what 2009 brings! Looking back I can say we’ve been truly bless… and so despite all that’s happened, especially with the current economic meltdown and the uncertainty that we are all facing, I decided to look back and count my blessings.

I can say that the number one blessing my family has received this year was our house. After years of moving, living in apartments, living with relatives, renting a house, then moving again, we finally have a place to call our own. Just a few months before the financial economic breakdown that hit our nation, we closed on a pretty good deal… $1300 closing cost and the buyer paid the down payment which was a little over $10,000 and just in time before we got evicted from the home we were renting that unfortunately the owners foreclosed. What’s can I say but “God is good, all the time, and all the time, God is good!”. On our own power (credit), I don’t think we could have qualified for a home. But with God’s help and His timing, everything fell into place.

Another blessing I received during the year was my diploma… I’ve finished my associate degree in Information Technology and am currently working on my bachelors. After I’m done with that I plan on going into nursing informatics, creating electronic medical records systems that make sense unlike the one we use at our hospital. I know with the Lord’s help, everything is possible. 

One other blessing I am looking forward to is the balance on the $50,000 sign-on bonus I’ll be getting after January 3. You see, I signed up for a 4-year contract to serve the people of South Texas in that great “white hospital” by the freeway. This is my 4th year now… worked 2 years in 5 West, Telemtry, and almost 2 years in the ICU, and despite all the BS, frustration from managers or policies, and especially EMR systems that don’t make any sense… I’m still here! My former boss, who unfortunately took my “complaints” for a better system as a “chip on my shoulder”, who actively tried to get rid of me, is no longer there. After 10 years, they gave her the boot. I guess with a house and everything, God is telling me, “you’re staying in South Texas for a while”, and I guess that’s what we’re going to be doing. McAllen isn’t such a bad place… we’ve settled here for now and that makes it a better place!

There are a whole bunch of other things that I am thankful for, but if I were to list them down, it might take a whole book just to go through them. So, with brevity in mind, I’ll end here. I know the next year will brings about more blessings, and I can’t wait to turn a page on a new tomorrow. 

So, to all of you out there who, may or may not be counting the blessings of the past year, I still say, May you have a prosperous and Happy New Year from my family to yours!