Dear Family & Friends,
Just a short note to let you know a little of what is happening.
Tonight, I'm going to fall asleep with the sound of ocean waves rushing
against the beach sands of Atlantic Beach in the Outer Banks of NC. I
love the ocean (not quite as much as I love the desert), and it's been
awhile since I heard the surf without the benefit of traffic sounds as
well, so this is a real treat. I'm here to have an interview with the
Director of the Carteret Surgical Center here in Morehead, NC and they
put me up at the Sheraton, which is as "on the beach" as any hotel can be
and survive hurricanes. It's a very short walk to the sands and surf
from my room, so I took full advantage of the beautiful sunshine, balmy
temperatures and proximity to dip my toes in the still chilly waters of
the Atlantic Ocean and get delightfully damp all the way up to my knees.

After the walk on the beach, I took a drive to find my way to the
Surgical Center so that I could find it efficiently in the morning for my
interview, and while I was doing that, my new potential boss called to
invite me to dinner with her. We ate a bistro by the Hilton hotel on the
west of the Bogue Sound which separates the outer banks island at this
point with the mainland, so I could see water, and spent an hour and a
half over supper. I had a special request dinner of flame-grilled jumbo
shrimp with lumpy mashed potatoes lightly broiled on the top with a
lovely salad of spring greens, grape tomatoes and cucumbers tossed with a
heavenly balsamic vinaigrette. Shrimp fresh-caught daily is a specialty
of some restaurants here on the coast, and I have to tell you, there's
nothing quite like the taste of fresh, flame-grilled jumbo shrimp, no
added sauces or glazes. If you like shrimp, but have never tasted them
fresh out of the ocean and never frozen, what a different taste, and how
you could get spoiled.
The dinner served as an informal setting for a very open and honest
"interview", where I just gave her insight into my passion for nursing,
what I want from a job, and how I approach management. She is not a
nurse, but has done a great deal of consulting and our employment
histories are quite similar, as are our philosophies on professional
responsibility on the job, not micro-managing, and holding staff
responsible for doing the job right without having their hands held. It
was a very frank discussion, and as I told her, I like to have my
potential boss know what my passion is about, why I'm such a "dictator"
at times in my particular profession, and that I don't tolerate laziness,
stupidity or mediocrity in my staff.
She seems to be on the same wavelength about all this, so tomorrow may
be less of an interview than an introduction to my potential staff,
coworkers and physician staff group. I made it very clear that I trust
the Lord to guide me to the right job, to open the door to that job of
His choosing, and if this is the one, there will be some financial
concerns (like housing) that He will have to provide in order for me to
be able to take the job. This is a "permanent" position, but I've given
her enough insight into my work ethics and style that she understands how
much I'm a person who is very good at taking dysfunctional OR's and
turning them into well-mannered, smoothly-functioning businesses, and
that's my strength and my skill-set. She's enrolling in nursing school
to get her nursing degree, after getting a Masters in Finance Management,
so we kinda joked that when she finishes her degree in nursing (2 years),
I should be able to hand over her Surgery Center to her in the shape it
needs to be in, and she will help me find the next "fix-it" project to
tackle.
She also knows I want to devote at least a month a year to
volunteer/charity work, and that my interests lie in either Africa or
Israel, and she's already agreed that this can be worked out. She runs a
volunteer clinic here in this region, so has an appreciation for giving
back. We discussed me being able to have a life, and already have the
understanding that I'd prefer to work 3-4 days/week than 5-day weeks, and
she's very OK with that too, because she has only been here a year and
told her bosses that she will be starting to have every Friday off pretty
soon, when she has a CNO for the surgery center and things have settled
down there. So, I guess we informally worked out a lot of interesting
angles of importance to us, got some informal agreements worked out
off-the-cuff without the pressure of the "office interview" and we'll see
where tomorrow takes us. Wasn't expecting to get so much talked over
tonight, and really wasn't sure about where this interview would head
tomorrow, but it may very well turn out quite well for both of us.
Please pray for me at 1000 EST while I'm having the interview, if you
get this in time, and we'll trust the Lord to accomplish His purposes in
all that transpires. I had an interview with the folks in Sitka, Alaska
yesterday, but they require their OF nurses to work in PACU (recovering
patients from anesthesia), and that not only requires experience doing
it(which I don't have), but it requires ACLS Certification (which I don't
have), which is also an ASPAN (the Recovery Bible like AORN is the OR
Bible) standard. When I advised them that I have no experience at all in
PACU, nor ACLS certification (which they didn't really care about), and
would be very uncomfortable working in recovery without any experience at
al in it, they let me know today that they didn't feel I'd be a good fit
(which I'm very much in agreement with). So, for now, AK is out of the
picture. I still want to go to Israel, and the Lord may provide for that
opportunity with a NC group that sends volunteers to Israel to work in
various areas, and the financial outlay is minimal for the volunteer.
Many things to consider, much to pray about, and I should get to bed now.

More later....happy MAY!!


Love,
Debbie