RN - More Than Just a Suffix to My Name

I sent this out to my supporters and family and I thought I'd post it here:

A crazy 16 months of nursing school has finished!!!  It's hard to believe, but Saturday, December 5, was my graduation ceremony where I was pinned as a nurse.  They tell me I'm prepared to be an RN on pretty much any floor.  I'll maybe believe it after three months of orientation for a job.  The even better news is that I took the NCLEX (or nursing boards) on December 21st! Despite the fact that I took a computer test, they made me wait an agonizing 48 hours to find out if I had passed.  It was the best Christmas present ever to get online Wednesday morning and see that I could start introducing myself as Rachel Fuller, RN.  I'm now waiting for my license number.

 

Wherever I go, people ask, "what's next?"  I'm asking myself the same question.  This last semester of school I worked in the Neonatal ICU for my precepted clinical (I was one on one with a nurse).  Up until that clinical, I had enjoyed every type of nursing I had seen or done, except for the OR.  However, all those floors paled in comparison to being in the NICU.  I loved every minute of being there. The job search is not as easy as I thought it would be. Despite the so-called "nursing shortage," there are very few new graduate jobs.  It becomes a catch-22.  No one wants to hire someone without experience, but how does one get experience without being hired.

So far I've applied to about twenty jobs.  Most of them have turned me down due to a lack of experience.  I'm still waiting to hear about NICU jobs in Columbia and Jacksonville, FL.  I've also been speaking to someone at Northside Hospital in Atlanta about a potential NICU job there, but it hasn't been posted yet.  The same is true for the NICU at MUSC in Charleston.  It's easy to get discouraged about the job search.  Every nurse recruiter that I've spoken to from Hilton Head, SC to Seattle, Washington says the same thing: "I know you've heard this a lot, but there just aren't a lot of jobs for new grads." 

However, I remember from where the Lord has brought me and how He has faithfully provided for me and I know that I can rest in His timing.  My mom reminds me daily that our history is to come from behind: raising support at the very last minute and being on the waiting list at MUSC are just two examples of how the Lord is provided faithfully, even when it wasn't necessarily on my time schedule.

I love the devotional Jesus Calling, by Sarah Young.  The morning I took the NCLEX, this is what I read:

My plan for your life is unfolding before you.  Sometimes the road you are traveling seems blocked, or opens up so painfully slowly that you must hold yourself back.  Then, when time is right, the way before you suddenly clears - through no effort of your own. What you have longed for and worked for I present to you freely, as pure gift. You feel awed by the ease with which I operate in the world, and you glimpse My Power and My Glory.

Do not fear your weakness, for it is the stage on which My Power and Glory perform most brilliantly. As you persevere along the path I have prepared for you, depending on My strength to sustain you, expect to see miracles - and you will.  Miracles are not always visible to the naked eye, but those who live by faith can see them clearly. Living by faith rather than sight, enables you to see My Glory. Ps 63:2, 2 Cor 5:7, John 11:40.

I thought it was perfect for this season of my life and may it encourage you as well.