Life of a Nurse Reliever

I'm working as a Nurse Reliever with a contract of 3 months. Reliever means you'll be reporting for work only if there is a need. Just like the staff nurses, I have a 2-week schedule plotted in the calendar. My schedule becomes insanely favorable when the census is low and that's the time that I would get a text message from the Nursing Service Office that I won't have a duty.

A while ago, the most anticipated text message came and I couldn't be any happier! That means I have 3-day vacation! No, make that 7-day vacation because I have been off-duty since Saturday! Yay! It has been like this most of the time. So, in every rotation (that's 2 weeks) I'll be working for an average of 8 days only.

The downside of it is that I earn so little I can't afford to pay my own insurance. I still have to rely on my dad on this. Thanks, Daddy. I'm just so grateful that I'm employed as a nurse now, instead of me paying for the training.

Anyways, Nurse Relievers are the ones being pulled from her turf to other areas. In my case, my homecourt is 4A. When the census is low in 4A, I will be pulled out to other areas like ICCU or 4B. I love working at ICCU because my focus is only on 1 patient. I just have to be careful in ensuring that everything that needs to documented is documented by me in the Kardex and chart, and that every abnormal condition of the patient is being relayed to the doctor.

So far, I have earned 1 strong warning in my almost 2 months as a nurse reliever. Hopefully, there will be no other warning or incident report for me. That's why after the shift, I always double-triple check the doctor's order, medication sheet, nurse's notes, Diabetic Sheet, etc. to make sure that I have closed my charting, I have carried out all the doctor's orders, I have signed the medication sheet, and I have relayed the CBG monitoring. Because the image of a nurse reliever is magnified and is under the scrutiny of every staff, supervisor, even NA's and orderlies in the area.