WakeMed and WPP

I've been at WakeMed for two days now and I really like it.  I've worked in the MICU (Medical Intensive Care Unit) and the SICU/STICU (Surgical Trauma Intensive Care Unit) and both have been great.  All the nurses and staff have been super friendly and helpful.  I'm feeling pretty good about the charting systems and how all the computer stuff works. I'm a quick learner ;) I will have two more days of orientation in other units so I'm hoping to have the same experiences there. The schedule is definitely a HUGE perk.  I don't have to decide what I want to work next week until this weekend - I love that!  I think I will mostly work Monday, Wednesday and Thursday every week.  I don't like doing 3 days in a row (exhausting) and I'd like to have every Friday off + the weekend. I may do a night here and there but I'll mostly work days.  I really like having dinner at home and going to bed with my hubs.

Windy Peak is doing so well! We are so excited.  We've booked 7 weddings for 2011 so far and have several in the works we are hoping to seal the deal on.  Most are late summer/fall but our first wedding of the year is in 2 weeks.  We've booked a few for 2012 also and various bridal shoots, family portraits etc etc. We are working on an on WPP blog, so that will be up and running with all our current stuff soon.  I'll be sure to pass on the link!  Remember when I blogged about how excited I was to advertise on TheKnot.com?  Well, yea, not so much.  We did it for 2 months and didn't book a single wedding.  We got several inquires, but that's really no big deal, we normally get several a week.  I'm not sure why it didn't work so well for us but it definitely wasn't worth the price we were paying.  Word-of-mouth is our biggest seller, so people, SPREAD THE WORD, and believe it or not - Craigslist!

In case you don't have it, you can visit our website at http://www.windypeakphotography.com check us out and tell all your newly engaged friends. :)

The Wake Way

Yes, I've been MIA this week, but...


I worked 5 days last week! I started hospital orientation at WakeMed on Monday and have been there every day since.  I am sooo not use to working 5 days a week. Holy-throw-off-my-schedule! I'm very glad to be finished with that and I'll be working Mon-Wed this coming week in one of the ICU's.  During orientation we had many many speakers come to talk to us - pharmacy reps, blood bankers, infection control peeps, consultants etc etc.  We learned about the "Wake Way" for hours and heard all the typical customer service spiels.  I took classes on the charting and physician ordering systems, how to administer meds and did a bazillion online tutorials.  We also had to take a ton of tests, several of which were super hard! I had to use some major brain power.  Good news is - all this is over and I passed all the tests and I'm all set to go Monday morning at 6:45am.  I'm super nervous.  It all feels real finally.  WakeMed does a lot of things very different from what I'm use to so I'll have some major adjusting.  I'll be working with another RN for all 3 shifts next week and then my manger says we will "see how I'm doing and go from there."  I wish I could get at least one orientation day in each unit so when I go there for the first time I have some clue to what I'm doing and where stuff is.  Sometimes I get really freaked out thinking about how crazy this might be, but then I tell myself - deep breaths and lots of questions.  I'll have nurses all around me to help and I'm sure I'll pick up all the computer charting and ordering systems soon enough.  I'll be blogging next week after my 3 shifts - fingers crossed I survive this!