Calming Nerves

First few weeks of shifts are behind me, and I am proud to report that I haven't killed anybody yet! Seriously though, I'm still nervous, but it feels good to have even a couple weeks of experience. One of the things that concerned me the most was the one thing we never did as students - driving. It always seemed like it would be a big jump, driving a large vehicle lights and sirens on the first shift with no experience. It isn't that bad though, just have to keep it slow and expect other drivers to do the opposite of what they are supposed to do. One of my first lights-and-sirens drives was a stat transfer to a pediatric hospital an hour away with a doctor, nurse and a woman in 30-week labour. The doc told us that they had managed to get her labour stopped, but we had about 45 minutes before they expected it to start again, and they REALLY needed to be at the hospital with the NICU when that happened. Thank God it was a beautiful day, not at rush hour, and the roads were good, because it went well. Not perfectly, but well. Fighting off the throat/chest infection of a lifetime now after a weekend of patients with pneumonia, so here's hoping I get better instead of worse so I can make my weekend shifts.