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Feb. 20th, 2004
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Going back
Feb. 20th, 2004 05:10 pmI sat in on a job interview for an nurse today. I do that periodically to get a sense of what their orientation needs will be if we end up hiring them.
This was a woman with a history--she had been fired from a previous nursing job due to alcohol use. She wasn't drunk on the job, but she kept missing days and so on. She also got two DUIs in a short period and lost her driver's license. Her life fell apart.
She has been sober for two years now and is trying to put her life back in order. She has had a couple of jobs since becoming sober, but nothing at the level of an ICU nurse. She was straightforward with all this--it was clearly the biggest issue in the interview for her.
It was such a strange sensation being in the interview with her. I could remember back to the first job I applied for after becoming sober, and all the baggage I was still carrying--the sense of complete and utter failure that I was trying to overcome. I recall coming right out and telling the interviewer where I stood, and how hard I was trying to put my life back in order. He was a good guy and gave me the job.
I asked her some questions about how her life is working now--her coping mechanisms, how she deals with stress. What she told me was pretty much the things I did to get by in those first few years. Make new friends who don't drink, go to a lot of AA meetings, nurture the soul, and try to live out the gift of a second chance.
We offered her the job. Afterwards I told her that I was a fellow traveler on the journey, so that she would always have someone to talk to. It works both ways--we keep each other sober.
Two years isn't a long time in sobriety. When I was in the recovery house, they told us that most of us wouldn't make it past five years--I think it was something like only two out of the 18 of us there at the time. Not very good odds. And it has played out pretty much as they said it would.
I have always told the people I'm with that I don't drink, right off the bat. That eliminates the chance that I'll try and slip one by. We need all the help we can get.
I hope she makes it.
This was a woman with a history--she had been fired from a previous nursing job due to alcohol use. She wasn't drunk on the job, but she kept missing days and so on. She also got two DUIs in a short period and lost her driver's license. Her life fell apart.
She has been sober for two years now and is trying to put her life back in order. She has had a couple of jobs since becoming sober, but nothing at the level of an ICU nurse. She was straightforward with all this--it was clearly the biggest issue in the interview for her.
It was such a strange sensation being in the interview with her. I could remember back to the first job I applied for after becoming sober, and all the baggage I was still carrying--the sense of complete and utter failure that I was trying to overcome. I recall coming right out and telling the interviewer where I stood, and how hard I was trying to put my life back in order. He was a good guy and gave me the job.
I asked her some questions about how her life is working now--her coping mechanisms, how she deals with stress. What she told me was pretty much the things I did to get by in those first few years. Make new friends who don't drink, go to a lot of AA meetings, nurture the soul, and try to live out the gift of a second chance.
We offered her the job. Afterwards I told her that I was a fellow traveler on the journey, so that she would always have someone to talk to. It works both ways--we keep each other sober.
Two years isn't a long time in sobriety. When I was in the recovery house, they told us that most of us wouldn't make it past five years--I think it was something like only two out of the 18 of us there at the time. Not very good odds. And it has played out pretty much as they said it would.
I have always told the people I'm with that I don't drink, right off the bat. That eliminates the chance that I'll try and slip one by. We need all the help we can get.
I hope she makes it.