. transport .

So I used to be one of those people that said that they would never join any work committees or otherwise do extra work outside of my scheduled12-hour shifts every week. Of course, that’s when I was married and had a husband that made enough money for us both; my 60% of full time hours were more than enough.

Now, I’m on a committee. I realize that every extra hour is adding up to a nice chunk of extra money. I do 2 to 10 hours of committee work per month on my own time that I get paid for. Plus there’s a 2 hour meeting once a month. Plus there’s the educational days that my particular committee organizes, that I get to go to and get paid for. My committee also authors the annual educational packets that all the ICU nurses have to do. So I will have all the answers already when it comes my turn. That’s just another side advantage.

And now, I have joined the transport team. That means that at least once a week, whether it’s from home or during my regular work shift, I will be on call for infant ground transport. So at any time I could get called away, to go ride in an ambulance with a respiratory therapist and a fancy transport isolette, to go pick up a very sick baby from an outlying hospital and bring them back to us. These trips have the potential to be hours long. They have the potential to run past the length of my shift, if I was in the unit.  (Overtime!) They have the potential to be at night, which also means more money. Just being on call, I get paid, even if I never go out. Then there’s all the training that I have to do for this specialized position. I have tons of reading to do on my own time, (paid!), I have to sign up for training on the transport equipment and the amublance, (paid!), I get to practice intubations on ferrets at the University and in the OR at our own hospital (paid!), and all of that is on top of my regular full-time hours. $$$$$$!

I had considered getting a per diem job at another hospital this fall to help save some money for my upcoming solo trip to France next year. But  I don’t think I’m going to need to. These random extra hours are really going to add up, they already are, and at time and half being over 55 dollars an hour, I think I can take it. 🙂

My dear friend Pixie recently got a job as a flight nurse. She willl be flying around in helicopters and Lear jets picking up trauma patients, and patients from far away hospitals in the middle of nowhere. She is psyched, it’s her dream job. The suck part is that she actually had to take a pay cut for doing it. It’s an awesome glory job that you don’t get paid any extra money for, for risking your life every single day.

But she now has a huge life insurance policy. (Flight nurse orientation – Day One).

So that’s my focus the next year or two. Save money. Go to France. Come home, move, have a baby in a couple of years. I suppose I really am finally growing up or something.

I had a vision yesterday of a maybe 5 month pregnant me walking down the aisle to My Baby. How cute and cheesy is a pregnant bride?

~kate