Goodbye Reston and Hello Maple Syrup

It's that time again! Another 13 weeks came and went, with a brand new adventure finally taking flight. While Reston was extremely gracious to us, it was time to make a move. Scoping out our prospects, we landed on a small town in Berlin, VT. Vermont, known for its maple syrup and ciders, is quite small. In fact, it is home to the smallest capitol in the United States with a whopping 7,000 people making up Montpelier. Not only were we looking for a place close by, but we wanted to find a place that was filled with multiple outdoors activities and minimal people. Being in the city for 13 weeks was taxing to say the least. So, Mike and I packed up and drove North. 

The drive from Reston to Montpelier is about 9.5 hours. However, Mike and I thought it would be disrespectful to drive past Gettysburg without stopping. In conclusion, our 9.5 hour drive ended up being about 12 hours, but it was a stop worth taking. Thinking back, I would gladly go spend a weekend in Gettysburg. The history there is too incredible not to enjoy and the town is small-town chic to say the least. With small shops, fun restaurants and bistros, and the history behind each building, everyone's happy (especially me with the bistros). After fueling up on bagels and coffee, we headed on towards our destination. 

Arriving in Montpelier, I wasn't sure what to expect. I figured we would see beautiful mountains, but that was about all I had in mind... mountains and maybe bears. Montpelier in itself is a quaint town. As mentioned before, and I don't think I can say this enough, it is very small. That fact alone, though, makes it homey and peaceful. Walking out of our current Airbnb, we are greeted with a bright copper dome positioned right atop the capitol building. It truly is a sight when leaving our small cabin. That being said, the downtown area is about a five minute walk from where we are, which makes it easy to navigate. So far, the town is everything we wanted: secluded and down to earth. I think that this jump from big city to small town living is a nice break. It has been an easy transition and a much slower pace. People here are very kind and hospitable as well, which makes it easier to love the beautiful State. I think the hardest part about this assignment will be transitioning out of it. 

Before I officially end this post, I wanted to talk a bit about my new work environment. So far I've been working on my own for about 2 weeks and the hospital staff have been very helpful and gracious. I really have nothing bad to say about the staff or the way they run their Emergency Department. While I really loved the friends I made and the people I worked with in Reston, their ER was not well managed. People were placed in rooms without being triaged or checked in, some sections would get slammed with no help while others were coasting through the day, and huge work ups were being done on people just because of policies in place by HCA. I in no means want to bash that hospital, but let me just say I left knowing what not to do if managing an emergency department. This current small community hospital has been the change I needed to keep me fresh as a nurse. Whenever I get a patient they are always checked in, triaged, hooked up to the monitor, and changed into a gown. Sometimes they even come back with an IV in place and blood already sent. The staff also seem to have a great relationship with paramedics because most of the paramedics also work part time in the hospital with us. Therefore, the doctors and nurses really trust the judgement of the paramedics that bring us patients. Being honest here, we should have a trusting relationship with our paramedics in all places but many facilities do not. It helps that this is a small town with our hospital being the closest one in the area. Because these paramedics mostly bring patients to us, they have time to build those relationships. I know there is still a lot of time during this contract, so I will not rush to make a judgement quite yet on this hospital. However, I can say that it has been quite the change for the better. 

With that, I will leave you for now. Don't worry though, I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to update you guys on what I'm doing. Spoiler alert: I will probably be dying on a mountain somewhere trying to reach the top. In the meantime, keep in touch, keep in mind, and COME VISIT!