I thought I'd post since I haven't said anything in awhile, but life's been fairly uneventful. I'm still studying math for my placement test and am a bit behind where I'd like to be, but I'm making fairly good progress. I'll have to pick up the intensity of that a bit, but I'm confident I'll be ready.
I've taken some time off from working at the hospital for jury duty, and should get back to working there towards the end of this week.
No news is good news, I suppose, as long as things keep going well.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Friday, April 3, 2009
The C3
As I expected, the Critical Care Center (ER) wasn't like the neurology office at all.
Most pointedly, I felt like a total fifth wheel. That'll probably ameliorate itself somewhat as I get to know the place/people a bit better, but I don't think it's going to change too much. In the neurology office I can put myself to good use working on real office projects that - while not strikingly important - have to get done. Here I don't do much at all.
Talking to visitors is one thing I should be doing. Unfortunately for me, asking strangers how I can help them when I only sort of know the place is something I'm very bad at. My key card doesn't open the ER door either. It's not a big deal for me, since I can get back there another way, but when visitors come in and ask to get through.... I can only point them to the desk or security guard right next to me. Or nearest nurse, depending on who is busy.
Basically, this will /not/ be the fun half of my volunteering work.
There was some really neat stuff though. It's quite an experience to be able to go back in the ER, and see how everything works. It's a bit overwhelming at first. It's really busy, even when it's not. Everything is charted down, and the hospital gets to take care of issues ranging from the common cold to serious psychological disorders to airborne infectious strains of disease that are highly contagious and don't respond to drugs.
Seeing patients go through the steps of registration/tech work/triage/etc is neat as well. And it's amazing how many different types of patients come in. I can't talk about any of them because of privacy issues, but the ER is a neat little microcosm of the world. Some patients are belligerent.... some complain. Apparently the less serious someones problem, the more likely they are to complain.
So it is good for me to be here.
Most pointedly, I felt like a total fifth wheel. That'll probably ameliorate itself somewhat as I get to know the place/people a bit better, but I don't think it's going to change too much. In the neurology office I can put myself to good use working on real office projects that - while not strikingly important - have to get done. Here I don't do much at all.
Talking to visitors is one thing I should be doing. Unfortunately for me, asking strangers how I can help them when I only sort of know the place is something I'm very bad at. My key card doesn't open the ER door either. It's not a big deal for me, since I can get back there another way, but when visitors come in and ask to get through.... I can only point them to the desk or security guard right next to me. Or nearest nurse, depending on who is busy.
Basically, this will /not/ be the fun half of my volunteering work.
There was some really neat stuff though. It's quite an experience to be able to go back in the ER, and see how everything works. It's a bit overwhelming at first. It's really busy, even when it's not. Everything is charted down, and the hospital gets to take care of issues ranging from the common cold to serious psychological disorders to airborne infectious strains of disease that are highly contagious and don't respond to drugs.
Seeing patients go through the steps of registration/tech work/triage/etc is neat as well. And it's amazing how many different types of patients come in. I can't talk about any of them because of privacy issues, but the ER is a neat little microcosm of the world. Some patients are belligerent.... some complain. Apparently the less serious someones problem, the more likely they are to complain.
So it is good for me to be here.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
First Day On The Job
Yesterday was my first day at the hospital, working in the office of neurosurgery. All in all it was fairly regular stuff - the type of bureaucratic filing, sorting, and creating - I've done in internships with NOAA and other groups, but with a medical spin. I don't mind that. In fact, I fairly enjoyed it. I'm good with getting that sort of work done fast and well, even if it's not particularly involved. I was scared I'd be stuck answering phones instead, which would not have been as good for me.
Tomorrow is my second day, but it's going to be with another department. I'll be working in the ER, and I suspect my duties there will be pretty different. It's also a different time shift - I work evening in the ER, which I think is kind of neat. I've never been much of a morning person anyways, so it suits me perfectly.
Tomorrow is my second day, but it's going to be with another department. I'll be working in the ER, and I suspect my duties there will be pretty different. It's also a different time shift - I work evening in the ER, which I think is kind of neat. I've never been much of a morning person anyways, so it suits me perfectly.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Orientation
Today was orientation for my volunteer job with the hospital. Nothing terribly exciting happened - we went over HIPAA, JCAHO, EMTALA, and a few other alphabet soupy things. There was also an overview of which building is where (the Georgetown Hospital is really a bit of a maze in parts), and we learned all the other basic stuff one needs to know (how to sign in/out, etc).
I'm going to be working two days a week, and my time is getting split between the office of neurosurgery and the emergency room. In both places I expect I'll just be doing lots of clerical work, and customer service stuff. Guess I'd better practice keeping up a charming smile while frustrated injured people yell at me.
It's funny actually, because I relate entirely. A few months ago I had to visit the hospital down at Emory when I dislocated my shoulder. The lady in the waiting room gave me a pile of forms to fill out when i couldn't even bend my arm in the proper angle to write.
My studying for the placement test is progressing... a bit. I'm still not moving along at an on par speed for that though. I'm hoping that that will get better as I'm forced into a more normal 9-5 schedule with this job. Hope really won't cut it though - I've got to /make/ it get better. I intend to.
I'm going to be working two days a week, and my time is getting split between the office of neurosurgery and the emergency room. In both places I expect I'll just be doing lots of clerical work, and customer service stuff. Guess I'd better practice keeping up a charming smile while frustrated injured people yell at me.
It's funny actually, because I relate entirely. A few months ago I had to visit the hospital down at Emory when I dislocated my shoulder. The lady in the waiting room gave me a pile of forms to fill out when i couldn't even bend my arm in the proper angle to write.
My studying for the placement test is progressing... a bit. I'm still not moving along at an on par speed for that though. I'm hoping that that will get better as I'm forced into a more normal 9-5 schedule with this job. Hope really won't cut it though - I've got to /make/ it get better. I intend to.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
On Placement Tests
I got some good news last week, and found out that I'd be able to take the placement test at some point after registering for the course, provided I pass before the course begins. Sadly, I immediately became irresponsible and spent the week in celebration (aka: not working).
That's bad, and needs to stop. I'll make a conscious effort to get back to studying for my test now, so I don't find myself in a similar "one month all or nothing" situation. If that happened, it would be really inexcusable.
If I can get myself in line though, I've got a bit over two months remaining to do what I thought had to be done in a bit under one. So things are working out to that extent.
The bad news is that my old computer finally died. It had been struggling for some time with broken drives, and those other computer errors that creep up with time and are fairly inexplicable. The last straw came when I tried to upgrade my video drivers. That crashed the system, and caused all my icons to vanish. Instead of spending the 50-100 dollars to fix that (plus the 150 dollars for a new dvd drive, plus 100 dollars or so for extra memory), I just decided to pay up for a new pc.
So far the new pc seems nice enough: I'll have a better idea later. I got in on sale at Best Buy (seriously... who buys their pc's in stores anymore?) and think I got a fairly decent price. I did skimp on lots of stuff I /should/ have though. I don't have Microsoft Office, and I'm sure that will come back to haunt me in the near future. I don't have the extended warranty either...
And I've lost some files I'd rather not have. Let that be a good lesson in backing things up, to anyone reading this. I lost my resume, my honors thesis and other undergraduate work, a few pictures, and either part or all of my MP3 collection (depending on if I can transfer back the things that were on my iPod). Not particularly pleasant.
That's bad, and needs to stop. I'll make a conscious effort to get back to studying for my test now, so I don't find myself in a similar "one month all or nothing" situation. If that happened, it would be really inexcusable.
If I can get myself in line though, I've got a bit over two months remaining to do what I thought had to be done in a bit under one. So things are working out to that extent.
The bad news is that my old computer finally died. It had been struggling for some time with broken drives, and those other computer errors that creep up with time and are fairly inexplicable. The last straw came when I tried to upgrade my video drivers. That crashed the system, and caused all my icons to vanish. Instead of spending the 50-100 dollars to fix that (plus the 150 dollars for a new dvd drive, plus 100 dollars or so for extra memory), I just decided to pay up for a new pc.
So far the new pc seems nice enough: I'll have a better idea later. I got in on sale at Best Buy (seriously... who buys their pc's in stores anymore?) and think I got a fairly decent price. I did skimp on lots of stuff I /should/ have though. I don't have Microsoft Office, and I'm sure that will come back to haunt me in the near future. I don't have the extended warranty either...
And I've lost some files I'd rather not have. Let that be a good lesson in backing things up, to anyone reading this. I lost my resume, my honors thesis and other undergraduate work, a few pictures, and either part or all of my MP3 collection (depending on if I can transfer back the things that were on my iPod). Not particularly pleasant.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
The Calculus
As I started organizing a study plan for Calculus I got pretty excited - the book I have splits it up into 76 little lessons, and as it turned out there were 75 weekdays between this coming Monday and the start of my course. One lesson a day: perfect, right? Well... kind of. It should have been, at least.
Apparently, I have to take the placement test to take the class. I have no real objection to that on its own - but it seems likely I'll have to take it before registration (March 30th I think), rather than simply before the course begins.
That's completely ridiculous.
A placement test now isn't going to give any accurate measure of where I could be, should be, or would be with 4 months of reviewing as I had planned.
I can't really dwell on that though, because there's nothing that can be done to fix it. So now instead of a lesson a day Monday through Friday, I'll be trying to get ~4 or 5 done, every day of the week. With luck, I can do enough to pass the placement test. That's still not good though, because cramming for things like this won't help me remember it for when I really need it - the course itself - which won't start for months after I have to take this test. As I said, ridiculous.
It needs doing though, otherwise there's no good alternative. I could take the precalculus class in the first summer session, but that would be a waste of ~3000 dollars. I'd rather not. Or I could not start courses until the regular academic year, but then I'd loose the advantage of being able to use this class to determine whether I should start down the path towards medical school or towards nursing.
Off to start cramming then.
Apparently, I have to take the placement test to take the class. I have no real objection to that on its own - but it seems likely I'll have to take it before registration (March 30th I think), rather than simply before the course begins.
That's completely ridiculous.
A placement test now isn't going to give any accurate measure of where I could be, should be, or would be with 4 months of reviewing as I had planned.
I can't really dwell on that though, because there's nothing that can be done to fix it. So now instead of a lesson a day Monday through Friday, I'll be trying to get ~4 or 5 done, every day of the week. With luck, I can do enough to pass the placement test. That's still not good though, because cramming for things like this won't help me remember it for when I really need it - the course itself - which won't start for months after I have to take this test. As I said, ridiculous.
It needs doing though, otherwise there's no good alternative. I could take the precalculus class in the first summer session, but that would be a waste of ~3000 dollars. I'd rather not. Or I could not start courses until the regular academic year, but then I'd loose the advantage of being able to use this class to determine whether I should start down the path towards medical school or towards nursing.
Off to start cramming then.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Course Registration
In the spirit of starting March off right, I went to American University today to learn how/when to apply as a non-degree student. I picked up all the forms I need, and some notebooks and such at the bookstore as well. It was too late to fill out the forms on the spot, but I went home and took care of that. Later this week - preferably tomorrow - I'll go back to AU to turn things in and keep this process moving.
The actual registration won't start until April I believe, and it won't start for a bit longer for me since I'm not a real student. Since I have to clear a bunch of forms and bureaucrat-types first though, starting now is probably a good idea.
The actual registration won't start until April I believe, and it won't start for a bit longer for me since I'm not a real student. Since I have to clear a bunch of forms and bureaucrat-types first though, starting now is probably a good idea.
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