Angela - welcome fellow Texan and Nurse! We've got quite a nursing unit on staff here at cavy cages.
I know just how you feel - I used to complain about my nursing job, too, until I heard and saw pictures of what those hospitals in New Orleans had to go through.
The hospital I currently work for actually sent several of the medical transport teams into NO to airlift many of the premature babies. It's really neat to be able to get the first-hand account of what it was like flying in - the destruction, being shot at, the conditions of the hospital. It's gut-wrenching. The hospital I worked for when Katrina hit received several of the preemies in their NICU; you should have seen how all the nurses fought to be assigned to those babies.
Which hospital are you with, if you don't mind me asking? Did you all receive any of the NO patients?