Palomar Medical Center

Seeing that I have already been working at Palomar Medical Center (PMC) for seven weeks now, I figured maybe I should blog about it! :) Hard to believe my contract is half way over! Time flies when you're having fun I guess!

Palomar Medical Center is located in Southern California in a city called Escondido. The city means "hidden" in Spanish. It lies about 18 miles inland, 100 miles south of Los Angeles, and 30 miles northeast of San Diego. PMC first opened in 1950 and only had 37 beds! The hospital has grown to a 319 bed facility, but continues to grow as the whole hospital will be relocating this year on August 19th. The new hospital will be called Palomar Medical Center West, and cost over $660 million dollars to build! Yes, it is quite impressive (Brad and I get a glimpse of it as we drive in to work), and as soon as I get a good picture I'll make sure I post one!

PMC is a level-two trauma center with 32 ER beds (but only one trauma room...I don't get it). The ICU is a 36 bed unit comprised of 4 parts. On the 6th floor is the Medical/Surgical/Cardiac Unit, which makes up three parts. While there are 3 parts or sides, each side is not specific to a "patient-type", the patients are placed on whatever side has an open bed. The fourth part of the ICU is located on the third floor, near the ER, and is the Trauma ICU. I must say, I am quite impressed with the size of the ICU (especially compared to where I've been), and wish I could stick around just so I can see what it's like in the new hospital.

The views from the patients' rooms in the ICU still amaze me! I love looking out the window and seeing mountains, especially when the sun is setting!


Brad and I were both offered a contract extension after only being there for a month! Didn't know we were that good! ;) After discussing it for a bit, we decided to take the extension. The beach city we live in (which is about 20 minutes away from the hospital) is so nice, and we are enjoying being here, that we thought we should stay because it will be one awesome summer in SoCal!

Road Trip Across the USA!

Yep, it's official: I am bad at blogging. My last post was in September! Maybe I should've added "blog more than once every four months" to my New Years resolution list. You know along with "stop texting while driving" because yes, I am bad about that too :( You'll be happy to know that I have made good progress on that resolution though! I always want to blog, but think part of my problem is that I don't know what to say. Now that I am travel nursing though, and have received some good tips from a fellow blogger, I feel like I will be blogging more often!

Well I am finally in sunny California and still can't quite believe that I am here! We took five days to drive out here, and the whole time all I could think about was that "this is finally happening!" This is going to be quite an adventure (and already has been) and I am so excited to see what this year holds for me! The drive out here alone was an adventure! While I am glad that we did it, and that I can say, "I've driven across the entire USA! From one coast to the other!" You can bet I'll never do it again :) Luckily we were pretty much able to take our time. We stopped in New Orleans, Dallas, Albuquerque, and the Grand Canyon before finally making it to Southern California (aka SoCal)! Here are a few of my favorite pictures from along the drive:

Brad and I on Bourbon Street in Louisiana!
The only reason to ever stop in Texas=To see Brad's cousin Jason!

Never been more excited to see a state sign than this one! (Texas took a REALLY long time to drive through)

The Grand Canyon is absolutely breathtaking! I took tons of photos, but this one is one of my favorites!I couldn't leave out Connie! I'm sure that she hated us for sticking her in the car every day, in fact I'm positive every morning she did hate us, but overall she did really well!
Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh yeah!

I also wanted to share a few things I learned along the drive (you know, in case you decide to make that drive one day!):

(1) People in Alabama and Mississippi don't use their blinkers.
(2) New Orleans is not all that great (but their jambalaya is).
(3) Texas is a not a fun state to drive through. It takes you forever and there is nothing to look at.
(4) New Mexico is a breath of fresh air (especially after driving through Texas).
(5) Every one should go see the Grand Canyon at one point in their life. It really is beautiful.
(6) Don't speed in Arizona (that's Brad's contribution to the list :)
(7) The farther west you go, the more gas costs.
(8) Audiobooks are more entertaining than you think, and were my lifesaver.

P.S. I have crossed off a few things from my Day Zero Project since my last post! Check out my updated list here!