While giving flu shots over the weekend I was talking to another nurse about how I came by this job, and also about my other job at the outpatient center. I said, “It’s great. I work these 4 hour shifts and it’s like I’m not even working.”

“So what you’re saying is, you don’t really want to work.”

BINGO!

“That’s it – that’s exactly it! I don’t want to work.” I would rather stay at home with my son, blog while he is napping, and maybe pick up some new skills like photography and php programming. And since I haven’t yet won the lottery I will continue to do this crazy “work” thing.

One thing I discovered is that I honestly enjoyed doing the flu shots vastly more than I enjoyed counting purell machines and putting my tallies into excel spreadsheets. I think what that means is that I really want to go back to working in a clinical setting, or as my friend Max so aptly put it, I want an “Ow my feet hurt and I want a drink now job.” By the way, I bugged my agency to let me work in the step-down SICU and they promptly replied that, “The nurse manager requires that you have surgical experience. Even in the step down unit they have complex surgical patients.”

Well, whoop-tee-doo for your complex surgical patients. I reacted by immediately making plans to switch to a new agency.

And then today, out of the blue she called me up. “The SICU nurse manager has changed her mind and now she’s considering your profile. Can you work tomorrow and the next day?”

To which I replied “Sorry, I’ve already canceled my babysitter for the week, but perhaps I will consider working SICU shifts in the future.”

Agency nursing – it’s all a game you know. Whoever is the least desperate wins.