Pensacola, Florida
My first position as an RN was at Baptist Hospital Emergency Department in Pensacola, Florida. What had attracted me to this particular hospital (I'd interviewed at facilities in Houston, TX., Lake Charles, LA., as well as Orlando and Jacksonville, FL) was the flight team that not only did transfers of patients from remote hospitals to Baptist, but also at-scene pickups for rapid transfer to the ED. Lessons learned in Korea and Vietnam had many hospitals adopting this ability to expand their reach (even more prevalent today) and I was hoping to take my training as an RN and EMT into a position with that part of the team.
The team I worked with there was phenomenal; there was a great deal of competition in Pensacola regarding assignment to the designation as a Level I Trauma Center and the doctors we worked with as well as the techs (we used paramedics in the role of nursing assistants, something I thought wasteful of their abilities). Kathy and I enjoyed the work and the area; one of the other nurses was married to a flight instructor at the Naval Air Station and we were able to go there and play some racquetball occasionally.
Always looking for more challenges, when offered a position in the Emergency Department at Tampa General Hospital, I jumped at it and we relocated to the Tampa Bay area.
The team I worked with there was phenomenal; there was a great deal of competition in Pensacola regarding assignment to the designation as a Level I Trauma Center and the doctors we worked with as well as the techs (we used paramedics in the role of nursing assistants, something I thought wasteful of their abilities). Kathy and I enjoyed the work and the area; one of the other nurses was married to a flight instructor at the Naval Air Station and we were able to go there and play some racquetball occasionally.
Always looking for more challenges, when offered a position in the Emergency Department at Tampa General Hospital, I jumped at it and we relocated to the Tampa Bay area.