A Good Day

Today has been a good day.

I started my day earlier than normal after having a rough night of sleep. I've never been one to sleep well, so this was not really that big of a deal. I had to run to the doctor for some simple blood work (everything's fine, no worries!) and then had to run to the office for my 90 day eval from my boss. THIS had me nervous. I am, after all, my biggest critic.

To explain a bit, I recently switched to being a home health nurse after having worked in hospitals since I graduated nursing school. I actually enjoy hospital nursing, I am just NOT a fan of the politics. In my personal opinion, your career should be more about the work you put in and not about who you know. I work hard, try to do a good job and try to stay out of trouble. That's just how I am. I am also not a fan of the "Get 'em in, get 'em out" mentality that hospitals seem to have. I went into nursing to help people. I LIKE to help people.

So anyways, back to home health. I recently went into this field. I started July 4th of this year. What a lot of people don't realize, when you change specialities as a nurse, it's a bit like completely changing careers. Yes, you have the basics, but other than that, it's a whole different world. I love to learn, so this was not the issue for me. My issue is constantly feeling like I suck at my job. As I said, I am my own biggest critic. Along with that is the fact that I seem to spend more time working and charting than the other RNs. I will spend all day with my patient's, and then spend all evening charting. It's exhausting when you spend 10-18 hours a day every day working. Especially when it seems as though no one else is spending anywhere near that same amount of time working.

Until today that is. I got my 90 day eval from my boss, and she only had great things to say. She let me know that I am doing a great job, we discussed the one area that I really need to work on (my charting), and even encouraged me to go further in my schooling because she feels I have a lot of potential. I needed this. I needed to hear that my boss thinks that I am doing a good job. I'm not one that needs someone constantly holding my hand to tell me I'm doing a great job, but I do need to hear it from time to time. It made me feel good and I wanted to explain the reason behind choosing this photo today.

As for the photo, it was shot with my Canon 7d Mark ii and edited using my PaintShop Pro. I adjusted the hue, adjusted the local tone mapping, removed noise and adjusted brightness and contrast. It was a beautiful day and the sky nearly perfectly matched the water. It was around noon when we got to the lake, which surprised me that the sun was not too harsh for my photos.
I hope you enjoy!