Day 2

I have to apologize in advance for not having any pictures today. There really isn't much you can legally take pictures of in a hospital. :) Instead I will give you some illustrations of what I experienced today. Although parts of the training experience in a new job are dull, there are other parts that are absolutely invigorating. 

One of the cool parts about this job is working with good friends from college. Today I carpooled with my good friend Ashley and then we met up for lunch later too. It was great to share the long drive in and catch up. I'm seriously going to love seeing her around all the time. =D 

Today, more than yesterday it really set in that I'm actually working in an honest to goodness hospital. Real patients, real doctors, grumpy nurses, friendly nurses, diet orders, patient charting etc etc. There were times today that I felt like a complete fraud, an outsider. At one point, I was smack dab in the middle of the nurse's station in the cardiac unit, looking through a patient's chart and I thought... "am I supposed to be doing this? why isn't a Doctor tackling me and throwing me out? Oh right! because I'm wearing this nifty badge and I look like I know what I'm doing (sort of but not really)" Seriously, I just can't believe that these grown-up medical people are trusting me with these sort of responsibilities. Don't they know better?! :)

I spent so much of my time yesterday getting lost inside this massive hospital so today was really encouraging to realize I can now find my way around 3-4 different floors. Although I'm still not sure I can find my way out...

 I'm just going to embroider this sign onto the back of my lab coat just to remove any doubt someone might have.

The other thing I liked about today was actually seeing patients. This will seem backwards but a lot of them really made my day sweeter. Here they were hooked up to tubes and monitors and oxygen and they were cracking jokes with me, being completely cheery. It was such a wonderful thing to experience. You think of hospitals as dreary, depressing places and for some reasons they are but, it was really great to walk into a patient's room and be greeted with a smile, a feeble wave and a corny joke. Maybe I'll get tired of the jokes 3 months in but for now, they cheer me.

I'm learning so much and a lot of the stuff in my brain that's leftover from school is getting the dust shaken off. 

In summary... I'm so excited to have a grown-up job! =D FINALLY!

First Day

It's finally here! Day one working in a hospital. I felt conspicuous enough walking through the hospital with a badge so it didn't help matters that I whipped out my camera to take pictures of my food. I arrived on the hospital grounds 20 minutes early and got to the office ten minutes late. Aaaah!! So stressful! I didn't realize that between my orientation on Tuesday and now, school started here so parking was a DISASTER! then I got lost getting from the parking lot to the hospital and then in the actual hospital halls themselves. Anyway, I finally made it to the right place, had a couple hours of introduction to the programs I will be using as well as stacks of paperwork. I was given this binder full of competencies that I will need to complete.

Then I met a ton of friendly new faces that seem genuinely happy to see me (so sweet!) as well as some familiar faces from school. Yay!

 I loaded up on fruits & veggies at the salad bar in the cafeteria and cut it very close with the cash I had on hand. Go me! After my little lunch break I will be training with someone named Jeny whom I haven't met yet.

I seem to be getting a lot of curious glances. I can't help but think that people are wondering if I'm an imposter who stole a badge or if I'm one of those really smart prodigy children with a doctorate at 15 =) it's kinda funny to watch actually.

I can't wait to see what else I'm going to learn today! Have a great afternoon! P.S. For some reason when I post from a mobile device it won't let me choose where the pictures are placed so I apologize if they're all at the bottom or somewhere random.

Once again it has been way too long since my last post. I spent nearly a week at my sister's, enjoying every minute of it. They were very busy days though. We were in full party planning mode. The birthday party turned out splendidly thanks to the helping hands of many.

We did take one afternoon to take a walk to McDonalds or "donalds" as an adorable little girl I love calls it.

We kept a running list of to-do's each night so I often forgot to take pictures of the prep work but here's some documentation:

 Of course the guys were in charge of birthday present assembly :)

 Kim and I made a disaster putting together some awesome goodie bags for the kids at the party. At the last minute we even decided to sew the actual bags. Yikes! They turned out great though. 

  

 Colors, colors everywhere! The party theme was primary and secondary colors. Laura made this ADORABLE skirt for the birthday girl. It turned out great! We found the pattern here.

We made this crazy bright, clear slime that I found on pinterest. I wasn't completely happy with the way it turned out but it worked out great to add to our goodie bags. (Sorry no pics again!)

Now, here's some colorful representation of a fun birthday celebration.

Yummy tacos with homemade beans, carne asada, carnitas, guacamole and queso fresco.

 A gorgeous and very colorful fruit salad on the side!

 Laura did an excellent job on that cake. It was so cute and yummy too! Katelyn had no problem blowing out the candle! She knew just what to do and when to do it. :)

 I feel like it's already been weeks since I left there but it's barely been 24 hours. =/ I was supposed to start at Loma Linda yesterday but there was a slight change in schedule so instead, I went to new hire orientation this morning. It was literally an ALL day event. Considering the late hour I got home and the long nights of the last week, it was extremely difficult to keep my eyes open at times. 

The room was quite cold so I had the pleasure of taking a walk on our break times and enjoying this view. 

  It really is a beautiful campus nestled in an unexpected place. 

I think I'm headed to bed early tonight. My eyes are ever so tired and achy. 

Goodnight!