Keep Calm & Nurse On

It's official!!!! Lesley Nicole Hale, RN, BSN! That's right….I have initials after my name now!!!! I took my NCLEX last Tuesday, which is the National certification test for all nurses! The very next day I think I checked the website every 5 minutes. I kept checking but the results had not posted by 9 AM like I heard they would be. I walked from my bedroom to the kitchen to get a glass of water and then back to the bedroom. In a matter of a minute or two, I already had 2 missed phone calls and a text message from a friend congratulating me! I freaked out called my friend and she told me she just checked the website and saw my name pulled up as a registered nurse!!!! I just screamed I was soooooo excited! $25,000 dollars for one year of school all relied on me passing this test! It was such a relief to know it had all been worth it! I will never have to experience the stress of studying for and taking the NCLEX again because its a National Cert. If we move back out west eventually like we want to, I just have to send in paperwork and pay to be licensed in that state.

I also really need to pass this test because I recently just landed a job at the only Trauma 1 hospital in our area, The University of South Alabama Medical Center. I was hired as an RN for the 3rd floor, which is a "VIP" Med/Surge floor, but basically we get all the post-op cardiac patients, post-op Bariatric patients, and all other different patients. The staff on that floor are GREAT! Lucky for me while performing my practicum at this same hospital in the Burn Center, I was pulled to the 3rd floor one day to work, and I got to experience what this floor had to offer! My nurse manager is wonderful and I am so excited to be working for someone I like so much. I have completed all my drug and background checks, and filled out lots of paperwork and just got my badge made on Thursday. I start orientation tomorrow and will spend the rest of the week in it. The following week I will begin orienting on the floor I'll be working on, and get to start working with patients again! I am so excited to get to improve all my nursing skills!

I am so grateful to my husband and family who made it all possible for me to go back to school to advance my education! I never thought I would end up going the nursing route but I have been so blessed throughout the last year, and I am so excited to start bringing in the big bucks hahaha… well big bucks to me! Going from two incomes to one income the last year was very hard and a huge sacrifice for the two of us, but we are definitely seeing our hard work and sacrifice turn into things that are honorable. I am so grateful to a Father in Heaven who has been watching out for me and guiding me down this path! He definitely knows whats best for me and my little family, and I hope now that school is finished Eric and I can begin the next chapter of our lives and be able to expand our family by two feet soon! :)