So today wasn’t sooooo bad, but still a lot of HR stuff. Today we covered more technical type stuff like infection control, microbiology, handling codes and the Rapid Response Team (RRT). Naturally, we covered good body mechanics, as you can imagine moving patients around can be difficult. Apparently, Good Samaritan had one patient at over 700 pounds…uh that lady needed to stay off the Twinkies. So as any good demonstrator will do, our presenter asked for a volunteer to help demonstrate patient transfers….all heads bowed down. Just then, Jennifer leans over to me and says, “You know you REALLY want to play patient.” No sooner than she said that, I was being called to the front of the class to be the “BIG” guy who can be moved by the “little” nurse. FUN, FUN, FUN…I was pulled, pushed, moved, manipulated, strapped with a gait belt, slung with bed sheets…my participation lasted, like ohhh, an hour. So thanks Jennifer….argh. Oh well, someone had to do it and its important to know.

I ran into a couple of people who took care of my mom when she has problems and had to stay at Good Samaritan. First, I saw Debbie Kleppe, RN who is a charge nurse who took exceptional care of my mom. She was a great inspiration for me to get into nursing, and is a nurse that I aspire to be like. My first clinical rotation in nursing school was at Good Samaritan and I got to do rounds with her, which gave me the opportunity to tell her how she impacted me. It was a nice experience, she remembered my mom (even two years later) and her situation, etc etc. Overall, very cool. When I saw Debbie today, I couldn’t stop to talk and all we did was that passing glance. For me, I knew exactly who she was, when she looked at me there was a definitive look of, “I know this guy” but it didn’t register immediately. I’m sure I’ll run into her again.

Later, I ran in Dr. Julka who is the head of the nephrology (kidney) department. Dr. Julka, I remember was extremely mild mannered and considerate. I remember, he answered all our questions and didn’t rush his visits. When my mom was in Good Samaritan, he was in charge of her case. As many of you can imagine, I can be slightly over the top on things when I comes to my loved ones. When my mom was alive, I had all sorts of compiled charts, reference info, etc…if a doctor needed information on my mom, it was very likely that I had the information at hand or even before the staff. Dr. Julka encouranged me to get into the medical field…although he was prompting me to get a medical degree not a nursing degree. So, it was nice to chat with him for awhile, again he remembered mom and her case, which is something being several years later.

Pretty much that was the day…tomorrow I am assigned to the skills lab for more orientation, so hopefully the day will be more enjoyable.

ta

So today was more HR crap…8 hours of HR crap…8 hours of evil power points that destroy the very fiber of human existence. DIE power point DIE DIE DIE DIE!!!! Anyway, the CEO (David Fox) talked to us about the Advocate Health system, so I got to see Kelly’s father and he seems like a nice guy but didn’t get a chance to meet him personally.

So like I said pretty uneventful, except for when lunch time came around. Another Lewis student Jen and I were walking to the cafe when we see a bunch of the student externs congregating around a lady with a clipboard. Well, turns out we were all supposed to meet this lady at lunch time to go over schedules but half of the externs weren’t told about. Jen and I just happened to get lucky to see them…phew…that could have been an ugly mess and as it turns out they staff had to hunt down several students so they could get their schedules, find out which office we report too, where our mailboxes are, etc. It was nice though that they bought us lunch…three types of pizza and they took our pictures, which will be displayed in the hospital. The rest of the day was more HR crap and it was definitely hard to stay awake. It was definitely hard to sit still, especially with two of my meds having stimulant effects….argh.

I was, however, able to get my ID and parking pass. Ok…now…picture IDs why is it I can never take a good photo for a picture ID. I mean really what witch-troll under-a-bridge living hag placed a spell on me to never have a great ID photo. If you don’t believe me check these out:

So this is my hospital ID photos…yuck…I look like I had a stroke

This is my driver’s license photo…I mean come on…I look like I just got mugged.

This is my student ID photo…what the hell…I look like I’m posing for a military campaign. Head turned to the side, chin(s) up, nose up in the air and the photo looks like it was taken from under me….sheeesh

Lastly, this is my Firearms license photo….ummm…all I have to say is I look like a terrorist…argh.

sigh…I think I am forever cursed to have bad ID photos…

So today was my first day on my externship. It has been raining all night and day so I left early at Gabrielle’s suggestion. Good thing I heeded her advice, as I left 30 minutes earlier than needed, I just barely made it to the associates meeting on time. I’m also glad that Gabrielle and I ran out the day before to see where this building was, because I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have found it panicking about the possibility of being late on my first day. So, I made it to the building and dashed inside to find dozens of identical rooms on a very confusing floor plan. I don’t know who designed this building (IBS–a site dedicated and set up for large business meetings)but they were obviously on very good drugs. As most of us are used to room numbers are consecutive with the occasional “a” or “b” subnote for the room number. Well, this building has multiple rooms with the same room number with about 10 subnote designations (ie: room 208, room 208a, room 208b, etc); ok, not so bad huh, wait it gets better…the designers didn’t use all the letters, deciding to skip some entirely so walking down a hallway was like (room 207, room 207a, room 207k, room 257c, room 212a, room 212c)…arrrghhh….maddening. Anyway, so I make it to the meeting room just in time, but of course very few seats are left and I spy an end seat on the far side of the room. I pardon myself as I knock people about to get to the seat…settle myself and sit down.

It was they typical…our organization is the best and most wonderful and if you ever think of leaving us and don’t perform well you and your family will be eliminated by a gang of psychotic carnival midgets who belong to the MAFIA. This goes on for awhile and then it comes to audience participation…yuck…so we are to turn to the person next to us and interview each other. I was sitting to a nice girl, obviously bored by the numerous doodles on her paperwork, named Kelly Fox. We chat and hit it off nicely. We never got called on so we didn’t have to embarrass ourselves in front of the group. Our next assignment was to write three things why we chose to work at Advocate Health Systems…as we are writing I notice Kelly wrote “my dad.” Being the nosy person that I am, I ask Kelly what does her dad do at the hospital. At this point, she smiles, lowers her head, leans over and whispers, “my dad is CEO of Good Samaritan Hospital”

It is at this point, I am glad I didn’t say anything stupid about her father, Advocate or whatever that may have been embarrassing. For the rest of the day we chatted and were bored by HR craziness. So, let the lesson be that you never know who is listening, talking to you, or watching.

So, in a few hours I start my orientation for my externship at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove. I’m pretty much running the gauntlet with emotions, but think it is going to be a great experience overall. Anyway, having a check coming in every so often will be nice. This first week is pretty much just orientation and HR stuff, but still exciting.

Gabrielle is having surgery on Friday….yuck…but at least she has a private nurse (me) and another on call (Bridget). I anticipate everything will be fine but I worry like a husband should.
If anyone would like a update on her Friday give me a text and I’ll let you know.

and now off to bed!
Ta