i know i know...it's my second real day and i should still be excited about joining the world of bloggers. however, eight hours of sleep and twenty hours of work over two days has made me tired, so i'm going to bed. today was awesome though, and i PROMISE i'll tell you about today AND tomorrow in tomorrow's blog. it'll be a two for one deal.
nite!
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
getting oriented
today was my first day. last night i couldn't fall asleep to save my life. i don't know if it was just because i'm still not used to sleeping here or what. the room i'm staying in is amazing, but the bed isn't the most comfortable thing in the world. i think i'm going to go out and buy a foam mattress pad thing from target or something. maybe that will help. plus--not having kevin there to warm my cold feet...i mean cuddle with ;-)...was tough.
four and a half hours after i finally fell asleep, both of my alarms went off. i set the room alarm clock and my cell phone because i'm paranoid about accidentally shutting one off or setting it for a.m. instead of p.m. i hope i'm not the only crazy person out there that does that. the one time i didn't set both alarms i left poor hilary at ihop by herself.
so, i proceeded to drag my butt out of bed and iron my dress shirt (since I know how to iron...ahem...hilary...ahem...neto...ahem...nate...) and get ready to go. i had a bowl of cereal and left at 7:30 a.m. i figured that an hour and a half would be more than enough time for me to get to the hospital and back, even if there was traffic, since it should really only take half an hour on a non-traffic day. little did i know that i was wrong. very, very wrong. i didn't want to be late on my first day of work, so i left with time to spare, thinking that i might be able to grab some starbucks before hand.
i felt pretty good leaving their neighborhood in a shiny luxury convertible all spiffed out in a nice suit. then i hit the main road that led to the freeway. traffic. at this point, i'm thinking to myself "it's all good. i have plenty of time." then i get on the first freeway. more traffic. i'm thinking to myself "it's cool, i have plenty of time." then i get on the second freeway. even slower traffic. "it's going to be alright. i won't be late." thirty minutes later and i'm still moving at an average speed of seven miles per hour. now i'm mildly freaking out. i finally get to the last freeway. more effing traffic. now i'm asking "why me, God? why me? why today?" finally, an hour after i left, i see the light. my exit is only a mile and a half away! then traffic comes to a standstill. now i'm pretty much about to go in full-on panic mode. "how could i possibly be late on my first day? on the day that i left a whole freaking hour and a half early?" it was just ludicrous. i make it to the exit and proceed towards the hospital. the road that leads to the hospital goes right through a neighborhood for about four miles. guess what the speed limit is? 25! 25! i mean really. who does that? and the worst part about it is that cops are notorious for pulling people over on that stretch of road. it's ridiculous.
i finally made it to the hospital with eight minutes to spare. i went in and met with my preceptor who turns out to be an older retired naval officer. he's a pretty cool guy. i think i'm going to like working with him over the summer. he outlined the things i'll be working on and gave me three 3-inch stacks of paper to read. yes, you read that correctly. nine whole stacked inches of paper. freaking awesome.
after that it was off to hospital orientation, which wasn't so bad. they had a lot of fresh fruit and pastries, plus coffee and water, so that kept my blood sugar up, which i desperately needed after the commute. most of it was the same old stuff that you hear over and over again, but a lot of it was really interesting information. i could tell from the moment i walked in what made the hospital one of the best in the nation. it's the people that work their and the culture they create. you can teach people a lot of things--like honesty and excellence--pretty common values. but you can't teach them compassion. i think that is one thing that makes this institution really great, and that's the compassion that the staff shows for everyone, both internal and external customers.
enough gooey stuff...we had an hour and 20 minutes to break for lunch. i decided to head down the street (about a 10 minute walk) to the outdoor shopping center. can you say heaven? every store you ever wanted to go to (assuming you have good taste) is there. i grabbed a light lunch and walked around. it was a good break for me since i got to get out of a chair and walk around for a while. it was a great day outside, but i felt like i was sweating buckets wearing a full suit and long-sleeved dress shirt. i guess i can't complain too much about having nice weather though. after all, it could be 30 degrees and hailing.
after lunch i had a few more hours of orientation, then went back to the administrative office to meet with my preceptor again and get settled. i got to ask a lot of questions and clarify a lot of things. i was pleased to find out that most of his answers were "use your judgment. i'm treating you like you are another administrator."
after we got done with our meeting, i tried to get acquainted with my desk. it's actually pretty sweet. they have me set up right in the middle of the administrative office. all the admin assistants are in the middle and the execs are in offices around the perimeter of the room. i have a desk right in the middle of the hustle and bustle, so that's cool. i have my own space with a computer (that has one of those cool privacy screen things), a phone, and supplies. apparently the desk used to belong to someone else. whoever that someone else was must have been a total wreck. the desk drawers were filled with tons of random stuff. i found everything from the usual rubberbands and post-it notes to earplugs, packets of ketchup, and chopsticks. the worst part is that it was just all thrown in there together.
that was pretty much my day. i drove back to my aunt's house and it only took me 35 minutes--and that's with hitting a little bit of traffic. how on earth it took so long this morning, i have no idea. i'm planning to leave really early tomorrow and get in to work really early so that i can avoid some of the mess i had to deal with this morning. i'll let you know how it goes.
happy monday!
four and a half hours after i finally fell asleep, both of my alarms went off. i set the room alarm clock and my cell phone because i'm paranoid about accidentally shutting one off or setting it for a.m. instead of p.m. i hope i'm not the only crazy person out there that does that. the one time i didn't set both alarms i left poor hilary at ihop by herself.
so, i proceeded to drag my butt out of bed and iron my dress shirt (since I know how to iron...ahem...hilary...ahem...neto...ahem...nate...) and get ready to go. i had a bowl of cereal and left at 7:30 a.m. i figured that an hour and a half would be more than enough time for me to get to the hospital and back, even if there was traffic, since it should really only take half an hour on a non-traffic day. little did i know that i was wrong. very, very wrong. i didn't want to be late on my first day of work, so i left with time to spare, thinking that i might be able to grab some starbucks before hand.
i felt pretty good leaving their neighborhood in a shiny luxury convertible all spiffed out in a nice suit. then i hit the main road that led to the freeway. traffic. at this point, i'm thinking to myself "it's all good. i have plenty of time." then i get on the first freeway. more traffic. i'm thinking to myself "it's cool, i have plenty of time." then i get on the second freeway. even slower traffic. "it's going to be alright. i won't be late." thirty minutes later and i'm still moving at an average speed of seven miles per hour. now i'm mildly freaking out. i finally get to the last freeway. more effing traffic. now i'm asking "why me, God? why me? why today?" finally, an hour after i left, i see the light. my exit is only a mile and a half away! then traffic comes to a standstill. now i'm pretty much about to go in full-on panic mode. "how could i possibly be late on my first day? on the day that i left a whole freaking hour and a half early?" it was just ludicrous. i make it to the exit and proceed towards the hospital. the road that leads to the hospital goes right through a neighborhood for about four miles. guess what the speed limit is? 25! 25! i mean really. who does that? and the worst part about it is that cops are notorious for pulling people over on that stretch of road. it's ridiculous.
i finally made it to the hospital with eight minutes to spare. i went in and met with my preceptor who turns out to be an older retired naval officer. he's a pretty cool guy. i think i'm going to like working with him over the summer. he outlined the things i'll be working on and gave me three 3-inch stacks of paper to read. yes, you read that correctly. nine whole stacked inches of paper. freaking awesome.
after that it was off to hospital orientation, which wasn't so bad. they had a lot of fresh fruit and pastries, plus coffee and water, so that kept my blood sugar up, which i desperately needed after the commute. most of it was the same old stuff that you hear over and over again, but a lot of it was really interesting information. i could tell from the moment i walked in what made the hospital one of the best in the nation. it's the people that work their and the culture they create. you can teach people a lot of things--like honesty and excellence--pretty common values. but you can't teach them compassion. i think that is one thing that makes this institution really great, and that's the compassion that the staff shows for everyone, both internal and external customers.
enough gooey stuff...we had an hour and 20 minutes to break for lunch. i decided to head down the street (about a 10 minute walk) to the outdoor shopping center. can you say heaven? every store you ever wanted to go to (assuming you have good taste) is there. i grabbed a light lunch and walked around. it was a good break for me since i got to get out of a chair and walk around for a while. it was a great day outside, but i felt like i was sweating buckets wearing a full suit and long-sleeved dress shirt. i guess i can't complain too much about having nice weather though. after all, it could be 30 degrees and hailing.
after lunch i had a few more hours of orientation, then went back to the administrative office to meet with my preceptor again and get settled. i got to ask a lot of questions and clarify a lot of things. i was pleased to find out that most of his answers were "use your judgment. i'm treating you like you are another administrator."
after we got done with our meeting, i tried to get acquainted with my desk. it's actually pretty sweet. they have me set up right in the middle of the administrative office. all the admin assistants are in the middle and the execs are in offices around the perimeter of the room. i have a desk right in the middle of the hustle and bustle, so that's cool. i have my own space with a computer (that has one of those cool privacy screen things), a phone, and supplies. apparently the desk used to belong to someone else. whoever that someone else was must have been a total wreck. the desk drawers were filled with tons of random stuff. i found everything from the usual rubberbands and post-it notes to earplugs, packets of ketchup, and chopsticks. the worst part is that it was just all thrown in there together.
that was pretty much my day. i drove back to my aunt's house and it only took me 35 minutes--and that's with hitting a little bit of traffic. how on earth it took so long this morning, i have no idea. i'm planning to leave really early tomorrow and get in to work really early so that i can avoid some of the mess i had to deal with this morning. i'll let you know how it goes.
happy monday!
Sunday, May 20, 2007
my first day...
...is tomorrow. and i can't sleep.
soooo
i decided to create a blog to journalize my adventures as a hospital intern. the next eleven weeks are going to be crazy, so i thought i'd share them with you.
i'll be back tomorrow to let you know how it went! sweet dreams :-)
soooo
i decided to create a blog to journalize my adventures as a hospital intern. the next eleven weeks are going to be crazy, so i thought i'd share them with you.
i'll be back tomorrow to let you know how it went! sweet dreams :-)
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