final backlogged blogging

What I’m up to this year…this year I am doing a bit different role on the ship…well, a lot different in that this role is completely new. We have gone to team nursing this outreach to match the different surgical specialities we have onboard. I am the maxillofacial team leader. Because this role is new, it isn’t fully defined yet but it is clinical (meaning I’m still in the wards) somewhere between a charge nurse and nurse manager. I oversee the care of all the max-facs patients in the ward but don’t really do any of the day to day nursing care. I’ve been doing a lot of education of the new nurses and our day volunteers (African nationals who work in the wards as translators or housekeepers). I help manage the bed/nurse assignments and I think more will eventually fall into this role as well. The more is a hard pill to swallow right now since I am already working about 50 hours a week but I think that mostly has to do with how start-up and setup happened and that it will get easier and less every week (just in time to add more in J) It also means a Monday-Friday 8-5 schedule (or close anyways).

I have never really viewed myself as a leader so this leadership position has been a huge stretching role for me. Often I find myself “on my knees” asking for His strength and wisdom b/c I cannot do it on my own.

We also have a plastics team leader (who did ortho at the beginning of the outreach) and a general team leader. The three of us along with the ward supervisor and assistant ward supervisor and ward educator make up the leadership team on the ward side of the hospital. It is a great group of ladies to work with. Each of them has taught me and encouraged me in ways they likely don’t understand. We do tend to see each other at our most frustrated so we make it a point to pray together and also to get off ship and not talk shop together every so often as well.

So, now that my role is likely clear as mud to you…(me too)…that’s what I’m up to this year. Your prayers are greatly coveted for this stretching period.