Actually, it happened on like a whim. During school, whenever I was in nursing school, I was dead set on pediatrics. No, oncology actually hated my oncology course and in school. And I passed my NCLEX., and I was looking for a job. And my one friend who I graduated with, she had fallen in love with oncology. So she had a job already and she just said, “I can put a good word for you.” In like bone marrow biopsy, the bone marrow transplant leukemia floor. And I was like, well, it’s a job. I’ll take it. And I haven’t looked back since. I graduated in 2014, And I fell in love with it.
So we’ll start, now is kind of different. I’m working in you know, an infusion clinic. But I’m actually working on the office end. Like it’s called a nurse navigator almost. Where we deal with patients that are seeing the doctors in the clinic before their infusions and working on that end.
And so it’s a lot of chemo and symptom education, symptom management. Uh trying to set them up with their proper scans. We really focus on a lot of actual genetic profiling, whether it be through blood samples or tumor tissue biopsies. So we work a lot with coordinating that kind of stuff for the patient. And then they go to infusion where I’ve worked in infusion before, where they actually sit down, get their pre-meds, you usually have to start an IV and establish some sort of central line. And then you give them their chemo treatment or they’re just in for hydration or blood product, then it’s monitor and
They go on their way. It’s a lot more structured, in outpatient than in inpatient, inpatient of course is just more hectic and things are happening a lot more, and last minute. Outpatient is a little more like, you stick to your schedule and there are a couple add-ins here and there.
Actually it was down to a Google search and you guys. Yeah, you guys actually you were one of the top recommended. Like I tried to every time I looked for an agency or like think about traveling somewhere else. I always looked for nurse recommendations as opposed to like, you know, oh, they’re rated number one nationwide or this or that. I read, like what the nurses are actually saying cause that’s where I’m going to be.
So I was reading the recommendations and you guys came very highly recommended and honestly, it was a great experience working with my recruiter. Because we hit the ground running and then I hit a wall in my personal life was like, I can’t travel and had to like just stop working on everything for about a month or two and right whenever I texted her again she’s like yeah, let’s go, come on! Where do you want to go next?
I’d been wanting to get to the Pacific Northwest or, you know, the cool kids call it the PNW up here. I wanted to come up here for a while. And in my previous, you know, contacts oncology up here was hard to find or it was
getting picked up really quickly everywhere else except up here.
So I’m really glad to get up here. I love being surrounded by, like, evergreens and rolling hills everywhere. Like even in the city. There’s just, like, pine trees in the middle of town. Like, it’s it’s great. And where I’m at is about maybe a little less than 2 hours south of Portland. So I can get to Portland pretty easy.
And I’m only an hour from the coast so I can get to the ocean, which I’ve been to. And it’s beautiful. And then in the opposite direction it’s just more hiking, mountains, camping. Really anywhere you go, you can just take a nice long day trip or do a short weekend. And there’s so much to do.
Yeah, so it’s, you know, learning the new environment together. And then also where I work and where we live is about a 45-50 minute drive. So I have to get up and go and then I come back and I’m like alright, what are we going to do now? We have a couple of hours before bedtime. I do explore. So, luckily, like I mentioned there, there are things all around.
So even if we just go out for an hour after work, there’s still like hiking trails and nice restaurants and coffee shops or just, you know, there’s a rose garden 15 minute walk down the trail, which is like just you don’t get that everywhere.
Honestly, I really like the diners out here, like the classic American Diner feel out here. I don’t know but I wasn’t expecting it. But more often than not, if I go out for dinner or we try to find breakfast, It’s not some like hip spot we’re going to we’re trying to find, you know, the greasy breakfast diner with good coffee or place that has like funky chicken and waffle recipes. And there’s plenty out here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely. Again, the coffee, of course, it’s, you know, just south of Seattle, Washington. So the coffee is, you know, culture out here.
You know, I really enjoy working, I know it’s only been six weeks now that I’ve been with this agency, but I really enjoy you guys, so anything I can do to help, I’m like yeah, definitely!
